Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Is this the first time you’ve done this?” Techno thinks that’s a weird question, one he’s not really inclined to answer. Like the others before it, it painted him in some kind of sad sick light. He wasn’t going to dig this hole and barry himself, not when this woman clearly wants him to.

Knowing better than to answer the question he keeps his mouth shut, gaze fixated on the small window built into the door. The woman sighs, like he was an uncooperative child. He ignores her, hands too busy playing with the hem of his shirt. Usually he would chew on the laces of his sweater but they made him change clothes. Saying it was too dangerous for him to be left with laces.

His eyes locked with a familiar chocolate brown through the small window. But instead of a sparkle or twinkle in them all he saw was tears. Wilbur was staring at him, mouthing something he didn’t quite understand. He tilted his head to the side, Wilbur’s frown deepening at the action.

He could see Phil behind him with someone dressed in scrubs. He was distressed, hair a blonde mess and his iconic green and white striped hat nowhere to be seen. His heart squeezed painfully at the sight of his dad being so… Unwound.

“Techno, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.” He tarried his eyes away from his family and back over to the woman.

Techno couldn’t help but frown at the other, wanting this to all blow over. “I want to go home.” He whispers, the silence of the room doing no buffering to stop the other from hearing him.

The other sighs once more, leaning forward onto her knees. “I know, but I need to make sure you aren’t going to try and harm yours-“

Techno jolts awake as the car hits a pothole, eyes snapping open. His breath hitches in his throat, frantic eyes looking out and around himself. He calms down when he finds his dad and brother at the front of the car, Wilbur bobbing his head to the radio as Phil hummed along to the lyrics.

After realizing that their car was in fact not being attacked by something, Techno sat up in his seat. He pressed his palms against his eyes, rubbing circles into them to try and wake up. The action gets the attention of the other people in the car, Wilbur turning to face the back. “Morning sleeping beauty!” He yells, patting his knee.

He grumbles something nonsensical as he bats his brother's hand away, Phil snickering from the driver's seat. “Don’t start fighting in my car you too, we’re almost there.” At the words, Techno freezes, turning his head to look out the window. He was expecting streets of buzziling people, buildings stretching up to meet the sky and the smell of pollution.

But that wasn’t what he saw, what he saw were tall trees instead of tall buildings, forestry and the smell of nature. They weren’t even on a proper road, gravel crunching underneath the tiers. He swallows thickly, legs starting to bounce as he pushes his forehead against the chilly window.

“We passed the town a bit ago.” Wilbur speaks up, turning in his own seat to get a look outside.

“How interesting.” He murmurs as he rolls his eyes. “I thought you said we were moving to someplace nice.” He questions a second later, moving his face off of the window. “This is literally all just trees.”

Phil waves one of his hands haphazardly in the air, not bothering to turn and face him. “It is! It’s just not in the town, it’s out more. You guys are going to love it, trust me.” Trust me he says, like Techno had an option on the matter. If he did he’d still be in his beloved city, white nose of cars and bus horns in his ears as he sat on the balcony of their apartment.

He didn’t trust Phil and his plan to move out here, not one bit. He didn’t care all about the nonsense his dad tried to shove down his throat on how this was better, they would be better. It was all lies after all, soon enough they will be packing and moving once more. This time towards the city and not away from it.

Techno crosses his arms, leaning back into the seat as he stares at the back of his father’s seat. Phil was right about it not being too much longer, the tree’s giving away to a decently sized clearing. He looked out the window once more, a house coming into view. Phil quickly parks in front of it, the car rolling to a stop.

“We’re here.” Phil announces, the two already starting to unbuckle their seatbelts. Techno follows along, dragging his backpack that was sitting on the ground with him. He slams the door behind himself, a satisfied sound ringing out. He puts the backpack on, walking a few steps away from the car.

He has to admit that what was waiting for him wasn’t just a house. It was too big to be a house, but it wasn’t some kind of mansion either. It was a fusion between the two, with two levels and an attic. It looked weird, nothing like he was used to. Weeds sprouted up all over the place, only adding to the creepy factor that started to dawn on him.

The house was brick, spruce and some other materials he didn’t care to name. It was old timey, like a living thing hadn't graced it for years. He distantly thinks it looks more like a mini castle than a home. Techno’s drawn out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. “What do you boys think?” Phil asks from his right.

Wilbur walks into his line of sight, a giant smile on his face as he adjusts his own bag straps. “Looks amazing.” He starts, putting his hands on his hips. “Like a mini castle! How did you even find this place? You never told us.” His dad chuckles as his hands tighten around his shoulder, thumb rubbing circles onto it.

Techno tries to ignore the gesture. “You wouldn’t believe me if I said. Was a good find though, lots of space. What do you think of it Techno?” Great, now he’s being asked questions, definitely what he wanted.

He shrugs, moving from his dad's side as he takes a step closer. “It’s big.” He says, looking around the area. “Overgrown a bit.” He adds, looking down at the dandelions at his feet.

“Can we head inside now?” Wilbur speaks up, moving their dad’s attention over to himself. He sends a silent thank you over to his brother, the other just looking read to run into the place by himself.

“Of course, just be careful of the boxes littering around the place. I haven’t had a chance to unpack anything since the movers came last week.” Wilbur nods, looking over to him in a silent question. He looks like a golden retriever puppy if a puppy was over six feet, had wire framed glasses and was named Wilbur Craft. Techno huffs, walking right over to the other.

His hand is snatched in no time as Wilbur drags them both into the house, the door squeaking open on old hinges. The interrater was as old looking as the actual house, a thin layer of dust covering every surface he dares to look at. At least none of the floorboards squeaked as they ran around the place.

They spent a few minutes roaming around the place, pointing to things and chatting. The first floor was what you would expect out of a house. Living room, bathroom, kitchen, dining room that probably no one would be using, what looks like to be an office, sliding door to the backyard and a mysterious basement door.

Yep, definitely creepy. “Are you going to open it?” He asks as they find themselves in front of it, the handle dusty like everything else.

Wilbur looks at him then over to the door. A shiver runs down both of their spines. “Why do I have to do it!?” He asks, gesturing over to the wooden door.

Techno shrugs, pointing at him with a steady finger. “Because you're the oldest.”

“So?” He frowns, crossing his arms.

He smiles, crossing his own arms as he stares up at his brother. “If you die then it isn’t much of a tragedy.” Wilbur squawks, eyes widening as his mouth opens to protest.

He doesn’t get a chance to say anything as the front door opens, Phil stopping whatever he was going to say. “You guys wanna pick out your rooms?” He calls, the two pause in there on coming argument, eyes narrowing at each other.

Before Wilbur could act Techno pushes him into the wall and darts off, turning around the corner as he runs down the hall. “Fucker!” He hears the other shout, footsteps roaring behind him as the other follows. Techno might not have wanted to move into the middle of nowhere but even that can’t stop the primal urge in getting the best room in the house.

Techno makes it to their dad first, Phil already looking exhausted as Techno puts out his hands. He makes grabby hands at the keys the other was currently holding. “Don’t break anything.” Phil stresses as he puts the keys in the palms of his hand. There’s three, one for each of them.

He nods, half listening as he turns on his heels and bolts back down the hall. He passes Wilbur, the other having to slow down to turn and race back down the hall. Techno heads right for the staircase they had already passed a couple of times as they looked around the house minutes prior.

He storms up them, coming into another hall. This one was wider, a big space with rooms along the walls. Windows also littered the cream coloured space, sunlight filtering in from outside. He didn’t care for the orange hues as he ran over to a door, throwing it open and peering inside. It was blank, like the rest of the house. No ounce of personality in it.

But he also could tell this wasn’t the room for him. So turning on his heels he heads for the second door, opening it. He doesn’t even get a second to look around before he’s being tackled to the ground. “Crap!” He hisses, body slamming against the floor.

He tries to army crawl away but it’s too late, Wilbur sitting on top of his legs as he bends forward to try and grab the keys out of his hands. “Pass the keys!” He yells.

“No!” He screams back, hands clenching around the bumpy and sharp object. “Get off of me!” Wilbur did in fact not get off of him, instead resorting to the most illegal strategy he could. He reached underneath his shirt and started tickling him, right in the sides. “S-stop!” He laughs, hands clenching harder against the keys.

Wilbur laughed evilly, tickling him faster. “Then let go of the keys!” Techno whined, shaking his head. “Then I’m not stopping.”

Techno couldn’t help the laughs that erupted out of himself, legs kicking the ground as he tried to get the other off. But with his bag still on his back and Wilbur on top of his upper legs he couldn’t push himself up. “N-no really stop tick-tickling me! I’m going to pee myself, stop!”

The other stopped then, only to grab at his wrists and pry open his hands. He tries to clamp his hand back down but Wilbur gets the keys before he can, hurrying off of him and out of the room. “Try getting the key’s now Techie!” The older taunts, opening a door somewhere behind him.

“You cheated.” He calls back, pushing himself up back onto his legs. He walks into the main area of this floor, watching as Wilbur un-hook’s one key and pockets it.

“I call this room.” He says, turning to face him. He had a shit eating grin on his face, tossing over the other two keys.

Techno catches the two other keys as he rolls his eyes. “You're horrible.” He states, rolling the keys around with his fingers. 

“I’m skillful.” Wilbur tries to correct him. He doubts that that’s true at all. He chooses not to get into it with the other as he looks at the room they just left, looking around it. Like the other one it didn’t speak him. Both room’s were awful. This place was awful.

Then an idea popped into his head. Techno walked over to the top of the stairs, catching sight of Phil on the bottom level. His dad was bringing in the last of their stuff from the car, setting it on the wall to put away later. He whistled, getting the older man’s attention. “Can I have the attic?” He asks, gesturing off towards the fifth door up here.

He hears Wilbur make a disgruntled sound behind him. Phil however actually seems to consider it, humming in thought. “Sure, I wasn’t really going to pack anything up there anyways.” Techno smiles, turning to his brother with the most smuggest look he could possibly put on.

“Have fun down here loser.” He says, turning tail and heading over to the door. He quickly opens it and closes it behind himself. Looking up there were stairs heading upwards, a ceiling lamp above him. He reached up and pulled on the silver string, the light illuminating the stairs. Techno then headed up the stairs, wondering how much space he was even going to get.

Turns out it was a pretty decent amount. The second he gets up to the attic he knows he’s made the right choice, the place being very open with a high ceiling. Like the rest of the house it would do good with a little dusting but that was really all the negatives. The floors didn’t creak and the beams holding up everything were sturdy.

There was plenty of space to hang up posters and his excessive collection of mythology books. The best part? There was a huge circular window facing the forest behind the house, with an indent so you could lay on it. It was by far his favourite part. Techno walked over to the window and took off his bag, setting it down on the ground near his feet.

He sat down on the spot near the window, looking out at the backyard. It was actually pretty big, the tree lines a little ways away. Of course the weeds have claimed it as their home, but he guesses it’s not that bad. Doesn’t mean he wants to be here, but maybe he can make technically living in the wild work.

Maybe. Hopefully.

~ ☾ ~

“Eat your beans Wilbur.” Phil says, sounding like a disappointed parent whose kids won’t eat his nasty beans, wait-

“I’m not eating beans Phil.” Wilbur huffs, moving it around with his fork. Techno does the same, moving it to a different part of his plate. He would rather eat his chewelry than whatever hell spawn beans were. Phil sighs, moving on from the beans. Good, Techno didn’t want to get into another argument with their dad about eating healthy.

Plus, he has no say in eating healthy when he’s caught the man drinking five cups of coffee right after the other at twelve at night. Techno ate a couple of bites of his food before looking around the kitchen. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it before, Wilbur and him were running around it just hours ago. But sitting down at the table - because they refuse to use the dining room for eating - made it possible to actually look.

From his spot he could see into the backyard, the darkness just staring back at him. There were no lights yet out there, Phil saying they were going to get them in the coming month. Along with the long list of other things they have to do. Like unpacking all the boxes that were laying around, getting the bed frames in so they weren’t just sleeping on a mattress and starting school.

Which he wasn’t at all excited for. Being the new kid was the worst, but that was for a later time, for future Techno to deal with. Right now he was busy staring at the backyard, something feeling off about it. Was that shadow always there?

“-you listening mate?” Techno turns to Phil, blinking owlishly at him. His dad just huffs, looking between him and Wilbur. “Like I was saying, you two are going to be going to Essempi. I’ll drive you in the morning and after school, unless you join any clubs.” Oh he’s talking about school, boring.

Techno, obviously with better things to do, turns back towards the backyard. The mysterious shadow missing from the long grass. He squints his eyes, wondering if he finally needs glasses like Wilbur does. But no, he sees everything perfectly. The shadow was just gone, vanished. Was it a wild animal? They do practically live in the forest…

“Techno.” Wilbur pats his shoulder, drawing his attention over. “Your spacing out there.” He says, eyes scanning him. “You good?”

He hums, taking another quick bite of his food - now a bit cold - as he leans back in his seat. “Yea, just.. in my head.” He shrugs, eyes moving back towards the backyard. “You know how it is.” Wilbur and Phil share a glance, nodding before they continue their chat about school.

Which he ignores, because Techno doesn’t want to think about going to prison yet. Phil says something about courses and clubs and after school catch up but he doesn’t bother trying to decipher it. Instead he rubs his ankles together, focuses on eating and tries to think of something that doesn’t have to be about his future here.

That is of course until he sees the shadow again in the corner of his eye.

Until he sees something out there, watching him.

Chapter Text

Techno kinda liked the sounds of the house at night. He noticed it yesterday, when after dinner he and the other two members of his family started to heft his mattress up the stairs. It was harder to do than say, but they made it work. Anyways, the sounds were nice, calming.

Laying in bed used to be kinda boring, with only his phone and the internet to distract him until he finally passes out from the day’s events. But yesterday he didn’t reach for his phone, instead he just listened. Wind blew past his window, shaking the tree's leaves back and forth. It casted shadows into his room. They moved sluggishly against the floor and his face.

The crickets were also a nice tune to listen to surprisingly. They chirped and did their thing outside, giving a lovely white noise to his night. Techno fell asleep easily that night, on his mattress on the floor. He woke up without having woken up once. Now though it was a bit different. The day was quite slow. No moving around and driving hours to a new place.

Instead it was filled with unpacking and goofing around with Wilbur, who insisted on getting almost all the packing done quickly so they can actually do something fun. His plan didn’t turn out that well as they had a lot to unpack, but they made a dent. The tvs up and running for one. With all this in mind it’s no surprise that he’s not tired at all, the forest sounds doing nothing to drift him to sleep.

So instead of walking back and forth or adventuring around the house once more he was sitting on the window seat. Gaze fixated on the backyard. He doesn’t really know what he was looking for. Something interesting most likely. Techno sighed, tapping his fingers on his knees. He could always just… close his eyes and wait for sleep.

He goes to turn away from the window, mind made up and ready to just crawl under his sheets. Techno pauses however when in the corner of his eyes he sees something, another shadow. He turns back to the window, eyes finding it easily despite how dark it was outside with all the house's lights being off.

It doesn’t move, not like it did the night before at dinner. Darting in and out of his vision. It was too big to be a squirrel’s shadow. Maybe a skunk? Do skunks even live here? Techno leans closer towards the window. Pressing his forehead against the chilly glass as he narrows his eyes. “What are you?“ he whispers to himself, the shadow still not moving.

At dinner yesterday he couldn’t get a good look at the thing, it was always moving away when he had time to pry his eyes away from his talkative family. It’s staying pretty still now. Techno looks over towards the staircase then back to the mystery animal. Phil wouldn’t be mad if he went out now, right? Only into the backyard of course, to see what it was?

With curiosity getting the better of him he climbs off of the window seat and hurries over towards the staircase. Techno pesters down the steps with ease, keeping his footsteps as silent as possible as he makes it down. Once he reaches the door he stops, takes a breath in and takes the handle. He slowly opens the door, tiptoeing out. Techno closes the door softly behind himself with a click.

Okay, leaving his room was a success. Now time to actually get downstairs and into the backyard. He tiptoes past the other doors up here and quickly went down the stairs, making sure to check his back to see if anyone was leaving their room. No one did and soon enough he was jogging down the halls and into the kitchen.

The shadow was still there when he got to the glass sliding doors. Techno couldn’t help but smile as he slid the door open and closes behind himself. Looking out across the backyard was weird, is his first thought after leaving the house. The back porch wasn’t creaky, its steps leading down to the tall swaying grass. But everything was suddenly much more… tense.

The trees didn’t sway as much and the crickets didn’t chirp as loudly. The more he looks at the shadow the more he feels like it was doing the same back to him. A cold breeze passes by, causing him to shiver. Techno rubs his forearms as he walks down the steps and into the grass. For the first time this night the mystery animal moves, the shadow mirroring it as it crept backwards.

He stiffens, not wanting the thing to run off. His curiosity won’t let him leave without knowing who their furry neighbour is. Was it a skunk, raccoon, or a very large squirrel? Was it something else? The animal cept moving back for a few more seconds before stopping. He takes that as his turn to walk forward a few more steps, stopping when he reaches the middle of the backyard.

The animal like before takes more steps backwards, then stops. Techno does the same until he’s on the edge of the backyard. The trees lining the area right in front of himself. The wind picks up, pushing his hair in his face. He splutters, hands reaching up to remove pink strands from his mouth. Once his hair is out of his face Techno looks up, eyes widening when he’s met with nothing.

“Bruh, really?” He huffs, looking around the trees. He really doesn’t want to go into the bush, because like an idiot he didn’t think to put on shoes, or soaks. “…Mr furry thing?” He calls, stepping forward. He’s already gone this far. It’s no use to turn back now. His feet step on a stick. He frowns, wondering if he was going to be walking back home with cut up feet by the end of this.

The sound of leaves shuffling catches his attention, causing him to turn his head towards the noise. Further away the shadow was seen on a tree, something with four legs. Way too big to be a squirrel. Techno marches on forwards. He ignores the rocks and sticks he steps on as he walks into the forest. He doesn’t know how much time has passed since he’s entered the forest, but after a while he finds himself coming into a clearing.

The wind dies down now as he walks past the trees and into the mini field that seems to be here. Techno tucks some of his hair behind his ears as he looks around. The animal is gone now. “Crap.” Groaning, Techno rubs at his eyes. A yawn bubbling up and out of him. This was a whole waste of time. He turns, choosing to give up on this wild animal chase. He was tired and if Phil finds out he left this far into the forest he’s going to be totally grounded—

There’s a dog behind him. It was huge, muddy and with gangly furr patches all over its body. Shit, okay, he can deal with this. It’s just a wild dog, a very big and too close to him wild dog. “Hey buddy…” He whispers, taking a step back. What do you do if you're faced with a wild dog? Walk away slowly?

Techno’s thoughts are cut off when the dog growls, spit flying out of its raised lips as it steps forward. His heart leaps into his throat as his limbs lock, mind reeling back. It’s like three cups of black coffee had been injected into him, his heart picking up speed with blood thumping in his ears. “C-calm-“

He’s cut off when the thing rushes him, it’s mount wide open with his yellow eyes glaring. Techno screams, moving out of the way. He stumbles a bit before quickly checking behind himself. The dog faceplates into the ground right where he just was. Not wanting to get eaten by that thing he turns and runs, entering back into the trees. His panic picks up when he hears it growl, the thumping of paws behind him.

He runs, passing trees and fallen logs as he tries to get home. The growling just gets louder, closer. Then there’s nothing, the sound of pounding steps cutting out. Techno doesn’t dare slow down. He knows better than to stop and wait for the dog to be done taking a break. He must have been halfway back by now, right?

He’s close, he’s sure of it. It has to just be a few more feet ahead. Techno hears it before he sees it. The rustling of leaves ahead of himself, the low growling of a beast ready to pounce. He doesn’t have time to twist out of the way as the dog leaps from the bush ahead of himself. All he can do is cover his face - which he does - as the dog opens his mouth and knocks him off his feet.

First there’s nothing, just the feeling of his back hitting the ground. Then white hot pain erupts from his arm, burning deep into his skin as the dog bites down. Teeth baring deep into his arm like a knife to a slab of meat. Techno screams a blood curdling thing. Raising his feet he starts to kick at the dog above him, trying desperately to get it off. It latches onto his arm, sending another spike of pain through him.

Black dots speckle his vision as he punches the animal with his other hand. Using his dull nails to try and rip it off of him. The dog just growls, it's hot and disgusting breath covering his face. Techno wails, kicking at the things sides sluggishly. His vision blurs, from tears or pain, he has no idea. The darkness creeps closer and closer, his limbs losing motion and strength.

“P-please.” He whines, prays even. He doesn’t know who to, Techno was never a religious person. Never went to church a day in his life. But if there was something out there, he was pleading to it. Pleading that he’d make it out okay, that the dog would lose interest in him. He doesn’t want to be another number on a statistic about how many people die from wild animals each year. Not now.

The last thing he can clearly see are the animals' wild yellow eyes. How it regards him with such evil. Techno cries because that’s the only thing he can do now. Cry and hope he’s not awake when the thing decides to move onto his neck.

~ ☾ ~

Everything’s spinning, yet pauses at the same time? Brain fog maybe. Techno doesn’t know. The only thing he knows for certain is that his arm feels like it’s been lit on fire. Or stabbed, if the soreness was anything to go by. Breathing felt harder than it should have been, like each breath was two times smaller than it was supposed to be. Techno focuses on breathing, remembering what his old therapist had said. In for eight, out for six.

It doesn’t help much, something is wrong. Before he could think more on what’s happening he feels something grab his upper arms. He doesn’t have the energy to shrug whatever it was off of himself, choosing to possibly ignore it. The thing is persistent however, gripping harder onto his arms and flipping him over.

Oh, that’s why he couldn’t breathe. His face was in the ground, his chest being pushed into whatever was underneath him. Whatever was maneuvering him must've gotten what it wanted as he felt more pressure on his body, his shoulders this time. It shook him harshly, jostling him. Techno tried to say something but all that came out was mumbles and gurgles. His arm hurt more from all the movements, like something had crushed it. Wait…

Blurry memories rapidly flash through his mind. Of sneaking out to go into the backyard, seeing the shadow, of following it out past the tree line. He was in a clearing, wasn’t he? He had lost it and turned to head back home. There was something there, a dog. A wild dog, he was being chased. It bit him, he was bleeding.

Techno’s eyes burst open as the memories finally connect together. A horrid scream ripping its way out of his throat as he claws at whatever was above him. It had to be the dog, surely. He passed out and the thing waited for him to wake up again. To continue on hurting him, biting him until his arm was nothing but bloody meat. He was going to die all because he snuck out of the house.

“Techno!” The sound of someone yelling causes him to reel back. The pressure on his shoulders was tightening. But it didn’t hurt, which somehow knocks some of the panic out of him as he stares on upwards. Above him wasn’t some unruly mutt dead set on ripping his arm off, no, it was his dad. Phil was holding him, eyes wide with panic. His normally smiling face turned downwards into a frown.

The sight only broke him. Tears well up in his eyes, a sob erupting out of his mouth as he wailes. Because that was his dad, he was safe. Phil must have heard him scream and chased off the animal. “Oh god, Techno.” Phil breathes, hefting him up into his arms. Techno immediately latches onto him, pushing his face into the groove of the older man’s neck.

Phil rubs circles into his back, whispering that everything was going to be alright. He looks up a bit from his neck, gaze locking with someone else’s. Wilbur was on the porch, eyes darting from him to Phil. He was still in his pyjamas, brown hair a mess with his glasses almost falling off his face. “Morning beauty.” He says wetly, wiping at his eyes.

Techno doesn’t say anything back, not having the energy to. Phil pulls him away, hand moving up to wipe at his tears. “You almost gave me a heart attack, mate.” His dad laughs. Which was weird. Shouldn’t he be panicking? Helping him into the car to get to the closest hospital? He was attacked by a wild dog. That has to need medical attention. “It’s been so long since you’ve sleepwalked, I didn’t know what to do when I found you faced down in the backyard.”

What… “Heh?” He couldn’t help but voice his confusion, looking from Phil to Wilbur. “B-but my arm.” He stutters out, leaning backwards from him. “The dog.” He continues on as he looks around the backyard. Nothing was out of place, not even a blade of uncut grass. “How did I…” He doesn’t finish the question, eyes darting back to his family.

Who both look almost as confused as him. “What about your arm Techno?” Phil asks, looking down at him. He follows, looking down at his right arm. But instead of a bleeding limp he was met with nothing. No open wound, no scars to give away to the fact he was ever bitten at all. He checks the left one just in case he got them wrong. But that one was uninjured too.

“Nothing.” He says, sucking in a large breath. He moves them up in front of himself, balling and opening up his hands. His right arm was sore, but the pain he felt - at least he thought he did - was nowhere to be felt.

Hands reach up and take his, stopping his movements. He looks up from them to see Phil's concerned face. “How about we head inside, hmm? I’ll make you boys some breakfast and we can talk about this at the table?” Techno nods mutley. Phil helps him up to his feet as they make their way inside. Wilbur holds the door open for them as Phil tells him to go sit at the table.

He does, sitting down at his seat as he rests his head on the cool surface. Wilbur sits beside him, the two waiting in silence as Phil moves about the kitchen. The words their dad had said repeat in his head. “It’s been so long since you’ve sleepwalked.” Is that what happened? It’s been so long since he’s woken up from a nightmare only to be somewhere else in the apartment they lived in before.

At the worst of times he’s actually left the apartment and collapsed in the hall outside their door. It had stopped when he was ten, this shouldn’t still be happening. Right? “Did you have a nightmare?” Wilbur asks after a while. Techno just shrugs, looking down at his legs. “You don’t know?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He corrects, closing his eyes. “It was nothing anyways.”

“You ended up in the backyard.” His brother mumbles, finger poking at his side. “You woke up crying.” Techno opens his eyes and swats at the other’s hand. Wilbur curses underneath his breath as he pulls his hand away, cradling his finger like he had actually gotten hurt.

“Maybe it was because you guys woke me up out of a perfectly good sleep.” He huffs, looking over at Phil as he cracks a second egg into a bowl. Wilbur doesn’t say anything else as the two wait for Phil to be done with breakfast. Which took longer then he would have liked. But soon there was a plate being set out in front of him, Phil joining them at the table.

Techno didn’t eat right away, choosing to stare into space. Phil and Wilbur both ate slowly. He knows the older of the two wants to talk to him, he said he was going to. He can feel the eyes on him, like he was something weird that popped out of nowhere. “Techno?” He sighs, looking up from his breakfast.

“Yes?” He answers, picking up his fork to twirl around his fingers.

Phil looks over to Wilbur for a few seconds before returning to facing him. “You had a nightmare didn’t you? Do you want to talk about it?” Immediately he shakes his head no. He stabs a piece of scrambled eggs and shoves it in his mouth, making sure to chew it slowly. “That’s fine, you don’t have to right now.” Right now? Techno isn’t going to talk about it ever. 

That messed up dream of his is not leaving his mind. He’s still not sure it even was just a dream, it felt so real. He was in pain, so much pain. His arm is sore, that can’t be a coincidence. Can it? He feels like he’s questioning himself way too much lately. “I’m done.” He says, standing up from his seat.

“You hardly ate-“ He cuts Phil off with a shake of his head, pushing in his chair as he backs up from the table.

“Not hungry.” He lies, pointing back towards the hallway. “I’m going to my room if you need me.” With that he turns and speed walks out of the kitchen and towards the stairs. All while his arm is sore and his head is reeling from today's event. It had to be a nightmare anyways, he couldn’t just have magically healed over night.

That’s not possible. It just isn’t.

Chapter Text

The bathroom tiles were cold against his bare knees. A breeze from nowhere shivers him to bone as he’s doubled over the toilet. Techno tries to ignore the disgusting smell of the day's food as he vomits, acid rolling from his lips and into the bowl. Sweat clings to his pale skin, sticking his hair to his forehead. And when he thinks it’s over, when he believes he’s in the clear, his stomach squeezes and he has to quickly aim for the disgusting bowl once more.

The only thing keeping him sane was the gentle hand on the middle of his back, rubbing up and down as a second keeps his hair away from his face. He whines, low and shaky in his throat. It doesn’t sound right but he doesn’t bother to focus on it. “I know mate, I know.” Phil says, hand getting a bit firmer as he goes for another round of doubling over the bowl. Nothing comes up this time, yet his body still persists. He’s spitting up air as he chokes and gags.

“I hate this.” Techno groans when he finally has a chance to catch his breath. Through his mouth, never his nose. He doesn’t want to smell that. Phil helps him lean up against the bathtub before moving to flush the toilet. Before he knows it there’s a wet cloth pressed up against his mouth. He doesn’t bother batting away Phil’s mother henning as the man wipes down his face.

After his face was all clear he’s handed a glass of cold water from the tap. “Rinse your mouth and spit it back into the bowl.” Phil instructs as he backs up, giving him room to move around. He drinks the water, moving it around to clear his mouth of the taste of leftovers. Then he spits it back into the bowl, Phil immediately flushing it once again. “Here.” When he looks over, Phil’s holding two small white pills.

He raises an eyebrow at them as his dad pushes the things into his hands. At the look Phil runs his hands through his hair, looking way too tired to be standing in the middle of the bathroom in the dead of night. “For the nausea.” He explains, to which he nods for his reply. He pops them into his mouth and uses the leftover water to help it go down easier.

“Thanks.” He whispers, body shivering once more.

Phil frowns, squatting down in front of him. They both don’t acknowledge the sound of popping knees when he does. But later, when this sudden sickness gets kicked in its butt, he was definitely going to make fun of the other man for it. A hand is pressed to his forehead before he even realizes it. He looks up, trying to see what Phil was doing. Which was practically useless with his hair all out of shorts.

“You're freezing.” Phil sounds confused as he says this, hand moving to press against his cheek.

“I am sitting on the cold tiles in nothing but my pyjama shorts, dad.” He replies sarcastically. He would have had a shirt on but it was just too hot earlier. His skin felt like an open flame as he had walked around the house in summer wear. It almost felt wrong, not his own. Besides that he was racked with an upset stomach. At least it got him out of going into town with his brother and dad for school supplies, but it did leave him feeling off all day alone.

Phil lets his hand fall to his sides as he looks him over. “And yet you're sweating.” He notes, standing back up. “You might have caught something while you were sleepwalking yesterday.” Phil says, putting out his hand. Techno grabs it as he’s hauled up to a standing position. To which he immediately feels the world start to spin around him and the floor gets kicked out from underneath his feet. There’s darkness for a few seconds, his mind filled with confusion and panic.

He feels arms wrap around his shoulders as a loud shattering sound rings out across his head. It felt like a bullet. Well, if a bullet shot out fifty rounds in a second and every one of them sounded like broken glass. He moves his hands up to press against his ears, body jolting with the loud sounds. And then it’s over, the darkness washing away to be replaced with his face tucked into his dad's shoulder.

“-no? Techno, are you alright?” Phil’s speaking very loudly, the man’s voice grating against his eardrums. He whines, trying harder to push his hands against his ears. It doesn’t help much. “You're okay, I got you. I got you.” He wants to cling onto the other, even if it would be the most embarrassing thing ever, but he couldn’t. The noise wouldn’t let him.

“It hurts.” He whispered, so quiet it’s hard for even him to hear. His ear drums were ringing, something was drilling into them. Be it Phil’s beating heart, the sound of his own breath or the fact it feels like everything’s been turned on its head and raised to a thousand.

“I’m going to lower you to the floor, okay? I’ll go slow.” He nods despite the ache. Like he promised, Techno’s lowered to the ground slowly. Always clutched in his dad's grasp. When he finally hits the cold tiles Phil is there to be his support. Techno leans into his dad's embrace, if only for a little while. Phil runs his fingers through his hair, his dulled nails scratching at his scalp.

After what feels like forever he drops his hands from his ears, eyes drooping down with exhaustion. “You okay?” Phil whispers, having picked up on the noise issue.

Techno waits a second for the pain to erupt, for his eardrums to feel like they were being hammered in. But nothing happens. “Yea.” He sighs, glad whatever that was is over. “Can we- can I go back to the bedroom?” He asks, knowing his legs are far too wobbly to make it up to the third floor by himself. Does it even count as a third floor? It’s just an attic. A huge attic, but an attic nonetheless.

“If you think we can make it up there.” Phil replies, no judgment in his voice. Techno soaks in it.

“I know I can.” He looks up at Phil as he says this, a grin on his face. The mask was back on and he was fine. The smile he gets back is the only thing he needs to get him to push himself to his feet. Phil right there to catch him if he falls. Techno doesn’t take the hand stretched for him, pushing his hurting body to move out of the bathroom. Phil follows like a shadow and when they reach the first flight of stares, only puts his hand on his back as he tackles the stairs. 

It takes too much time in his opinion to make it to the second floor, but he does. Eyes immediately landing on a pair of chocolate brown ones. Wilbur was peering out his bedroom door, eyes half lidded as he looked over the two of them. He mouths a quick “are you okay?” To which he nods. He’s thankful that doesn’t cause him to go spiraling once more as he makes it to the second set of the stairs. The ones leading to the attic.

Techno makes his way up them with no further problems. The second he sees his mattress he falls forward, face landing right on his pillow. He hears Phil chuckle as footsteps retreat back to the stairs. “Goodnight.” The other says. He turns his head to he said, waving a tired hand. Phil’s worried smile turns a little less worried as he descends the stairs. Techno can faintly hear the click of the door closing, leaving him all alone.

He rolls onto his back, hand moving down to lay on his previously retching stomach. He looks up to the beams holding up the roof, his eyes becoming heavier and heavier. Far back in his sleepy and delicious mind he thinks he hears a howl. One calling for something, someone. Techno’s eyes close and he falls asleep, the memory leaving him just as quickly as it came.

“Are you sure you're feeling fine?” Phil asks for the hundredth time, his hand moving over to press up against his forehead.

Techno dodges the offending hand. “I’m fine.” He insists, moving past the man and over to the cupboards. Wilbur was sitting on top of the counter, shoveling cereal into his mouth. He was wearing his favourite sweater, the yellow cotton one he swears was still in style. With his blue sheep pyjama pants still on underneath. He moves past his brother and opens one of the cupboards, grabbing a bowl and placing it down on the counter.

“But-“ Phil tries to speak up but is interrupted by Wilbur.

“He said he was fine, dad.” Wilbur raises his spoon, pointing it in his direction as he grabs a fork. He ignores the look Wilbur gives him as he takes out some cereal and dumps it into his bowl. “Feeling nauseous Techno?” He shakes his head no. “Heads hurting you again?” Another no. “Is everything too loud?” Techno rolls his eyes, giving another no as he opens up the fridge for some milk. “See, he’s fine!” Wilbur cheers, shoving another spoonful of food into his mouth.

Phil sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You were literally throwing up two days ago.” He says as a whisper, yet he could still hear it. Techno looks over to Wilbur, trying to see if the other had heard it too. Wilbur doesn’t speak up for him at all, giving him the impression that he hadn’t. “You don’t have to be fine.” He adds, a lot more louder than before. Techno tries not to think about the words as he pours the milk into his cereal.

After putting everything back he settles down beside his brother on top of the counter, ignoring their dad's scolding look. “But I am, I promise.” He lies, taking a bite of his breakfast. Phil at least accepts his lie as he goes about making himself a cup of coffee. Silence stretches between the three of them, yet it was much louder then it was ever before. Techno could hear every time Wilbur’s spoon clinks against his bowl, everytime Phil presses a button on the coffee machine.

The sounds bring up memories of him curled up in his bed, hands against his ears as he tried to block out the house's creaking. Of his skin feeling out of place, itchy and cold. Of dreams of a rabid dog biting into him, digging into bone. And then of his skin knitting back together, like everything was just a dream. And it was, he reminds himself. Everything that happened that night was just a freaky nightmare combined with his old sleepwalking tendencies.

And he just got sick after being out in the night cold. There wasn’t something wrong with him, it was just a cold. Phil said so himself. “Okay.” Phil relents, taking a sip of his freshly made coffee. He then looks over at the clock, the old one Phil persisted on bringing from the old apartment. It was dusty and brown, even if the original colour wasn’t as dark. But no matter what they do it seems like the stains will never rub off. The moment he looks at the clock his eyes grow wide.

Wilbur and him follow Phil’s eyes and stare at the clock. They all look at it for maybe too long. The hands on it a little too much to the right for their liking. “We’re going to be late!” Wilbur yells, shoving the last bit of his breakfast into his mouth before dashing it away in the sink. Techno turns to their dad, Phil speeding up his drinking as he gestures to him to do the same.

“Hurry, I don’t want to speed on the way to your guy’s school.” He urges, to which Techno starts shoveling cereal down his mouth like there was no tomorrow. He’s quick to finish, dashing the bowl into the sink before he runs his way up the stairs. He passed Wilbur’s door, the thing cracked open. He only looks for a second, catching sight of Wilbur digging out a pair of jeans from his pants pile.

Techno makes his way up the second set of stairs and over to the pile of clothes he left to sort though when he actually has time. He picks them at random, only making sure to collect his favourite black sweater with the pig decal on the back before putting everything on. He grabs his backpack, his phone and wallet on his way back to the stairs. All in all, not his worst time for getting ready in the morning. The rush reminded him when they were younger, when he was only in middle school.

Everything was much more simple back then. Life in general hasn’t thrown its worst at him, so he could go through each day with a smile on his face. Nowadays it was a miracle that his life was still in some sort of shape, all plastered together with its many metaphorical bandages. Techno doesn’t know when it started to break and wither.

He thinks it was when Wilbur came home one day with a black eye, his clothes drenched in the evening's shower. He hadn’t met up with him after school to walk home. Techno had left, thinking the other had just gone home, not wanting to have gone to get him. It wouldn’t have been the first time his brother didn’t want to walk all the way to his middle school to pick him up. It was fine.

At least until he knocked on the apartment door and no one opened it for him. Phil didn’t get home until late back then. So he waited and waited, but no one answered, no one came home. Techno was left there. When Phil did get home at first he was mad. Then time passed and Wilbur never showed up. He never answered his phone.

Wilbur walked through the door an hour after they had called the police. He thinks it’s then that things started to crack, when he glanced at his brother's face and saw nothing but pain. He didn’t cry, he couldn’t. Not in front of them, not when Wilbur needed him. It’s a month after that when the other told him what happened.

“I met this girl.” He had started with, passing him a plate to dry as they stood at the sink together. “She asked to hang out after school with me, so of course I agreed. But then she cornered me and called me pathetic. Others came out with…” He didn’t finish that sentence, taking a deep breath in. “I lost track of time after that. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Bullies, Wilbur was being bullied and he had nothing better to say than sorry. Like Techno ever needed an apology from him. “Do you need me to come to your school with a bat?” The only thing he could do was joke, an undertone of seriousness lining his words. He’d do it, do anything if it meant Wilbur wouldn’t have to be scared of walking home alone.

Wilbur had just laughed and shook his head. “Beating people up for my brother is my job. You stay the nerd out of the two of us, okay?” He agreed, because at the time he trusted what came out of the other's mouth to be one hundred percent true.

Life is like the weather now, never fully sunny with a slice of rainbows. It could turn into a thunderstorm in a split second. Or a snowstorm, causing you to freeze up and not know what to do. At the moment Techno thought life was an oncoming electrical storm. He could see the destruction to come if one thing went wrong, but it wasn’t there yet. The sun was still out, warming his skin with its radioactive waves.

He ignored the nightmare and the sleepwalking, the sickness and the new itch to his skin. Because he was still fine. Techno runs down the stairs, jumping the last ones. He shakes off the thoughts of back then, because he has the whole day to not worry about. It’s then that Wilbur leaves his room, face in front of his phone as he tries to style his hair on the go. They both run down the stairs together, only splitting off when Wilbur goes to get something from the kitchen.

At the front door stood Phil, a pair of keys in his hand. He looked better than he did a moment ago. Not much like a zombie and more like an overworked dad. Techno goes over and grabs his pair of shoes, shoving his feet in before bending down to do up his laces. “Do you have your lunch?” Phil asks, running his hand through his hair.

He only has a second to think crap before Wilbur’s making his way down the hall. “Don’t worry I got them.” He yells. Techno stands up just in time to catch his lunch box, Wilbur throwing it over like they needed to save time. If they were lucky they wouldn’t need the extra seconds that granted them.

“Thank Wil.” He says as he unzips his bag. Wilbur nods, a smile on his face as he walks down the steps of the porch. After his lunch is in his bag he follows, leaving the locking of the house to their dad as they head over to the car. Wilbur’s fast to claim the passenger seat, leaving the back for him. Phil’s unlocking the door immediately after the house is locked up. He doesn’t bother questioning why a house in the middle of nowhere needs to be locked up, because he’s way too tired to ask.

Techno opens the car door and climbs inside, setting his bag beside him before closing the door and strapping himself in. “Ready for your guy’s first day?” Phil asks, sounding much more peppy thanks to the coffee.

He doesn’t bother answering, letting his brother take it away. “Of course.” Wilbur says easily, looking over at Phil. The car starts, peeling out of the driveway easily. Not like it would in the car park in the back of the apartment, where you had to dodge people like your life depended on it. For some reason the backs of apartments were where people hung out around the most.

“I looked up the school last night, it has a music program!” Techno looks out the window, wondering how long it’ll be until Wilbur comes home saying he got in.

“Wait.” He scrunches up his nose, turning back to look at Wilbur. “You looked up the school? Why?” Wilbur faces him, a grin on his face.

“Why didn’t you?” He asks, like it was obvious he would.

Techno just shrugs, a thought popping up in his mind. “Because unlike you, I didn’t fail a year of school.” A grin forms on his face as he watches Wilbur’s go through a hundred different emotions. He’s been waiting to say that all week.

“You mother-“ Wilbur lunges for him. He bursts out into laughter, swatting the others offending hands away as Phil shouts at them to stop fighting in the car. 

Chapter Text

The school was huge, was Techno's first thought as Phil stopped the car. Kids of all high school ages walked and ran through the grey doors. Chatting, screaming, jumping on each other. He shrunk away from the sight of it all. “It’s much bigger than the brochure I saw on the school site.” Wilbur says as he shoves his arms through the bands of his backpack.

“It looks bigger than a whole grocery store.” He hisses, crossing his arms over his chest. Essempi was the name of their new high school if he remembers correctly. The best and one of the only ones around. Besides the private school, which no one had money for. Techno goes to cover his ears but pauses when he catches sight of his dad looking over at them. The noise of people grates against his ears. He takes a deep breath, lowering his hands. He can do this.

Phil walks over to them, patting them both on the shoulders as he stands between them. It was almost comical the height difference. Even at sixteen Techno was a bit taller than the other. “If you two need me I can come inside with you. Make sure you get to your first class okay?” He says, sounding like he’s going to go with them no matter what they say.

He sends a quick look over to Wilbur. A begging one, maybe, but a look that holds everything he wanted to say. “I think we’re going to be okay.” Wilbur says, turning towards Phil. Techno slips away from the two as they chat. He looks over the crowd again, wincing slightly when he hears someone yell. High school had always been loud and noisy. Full of angsty teens and drama. But it had never been this loud before. To the point where he wants to put his hands over his ears.

Was it a side effect from getting sick? Maybe he was still sick? It usually took a week for him to get better. Not a few days. Plus it seemed a lot different than a stuffy nose. “Make sure to call if something happens.” Phil’s words draw him back. He turns, eyeing his family near the car.

“We will.” Wilbur nods, a smile on his face. “Won’t we?” His brother turns towards him, eyes going between him and Phil.

Techno hastily nods, plastering off a bored smile. “You forget who your children are.” He takes out his phone, wiggling it in the air in front of him. His plastic pig charm waved with the movement. “Chronic phone users, dad.”

Phil rolls his eyes. “Of course.” He chuckles, looking between them. Then more seriously, adds. “I love you boys.”

“Of course you do.” He replies.

“I love you too, dad.” Wilbur adds quickly after. “See you after school.” With that they wave their final goodbyes as Phil gets into the car. He weaves between other parents' cars and trucks, getting out onto the road. “So…” Wilbur backs up, moving towards the entrance way. “On a scale of I’m okay and I’m dying but won’t say anything, how good are you really?”

Techno rushes to meet the others' strides, holding onto the bands of his bag. He scoffs, looking away. “I’m fine.” He says, ignoring the way the older teen shakes his head. After a few seconds and with them getting closer towards the doors, he whispered. “It’s just very loud.”

“Loud?” Wilbur questions. “Loud how?”

“Loud like my ears have been turned up by three.” He says, shrugging. “It’s fine though. Not at all like when I was sick. I can almost ignore it.” Almost being the key word there. Wilbur stops then, taking off his bag. Techno turns. What was he doing? “Wilbur—“

“Here.” Before he could finish his words, a pair of black foldable headphones are pushed into his hands. He fumbles, grip tightening on them so as to not drop them on the ground. Wilbur quickly zips up and puts his bag back on. “Now you’ll be back to normal, hopefully.” He says, pointing at the headphones. “Wear them in the halls.”

“But they're yours. I can’t just keep them for the whole day.” He says. He slips them over his head anyways. Instantly the noise around them becomes bearable. Back to normal. “…Never mind, you're not getting these back.” He sighs, shoulders relaxing. He can feel the future migraine getting defeated.

Wilber snorts. “Now come on. We have class.” Techno hums, following the taller. He uses his brother as a barricade as they walk inside the building. No one dares push through the six foot teenager and so in turn, they don’t run into him. All the while he was checking his texts with his dad. Phil had scent him his timetable, which he hasn’t looked at yet. Like the lazy man he was.

“Here’s my stop.” Wilbur voices, looking back at him. Techno looks up from his phone. He looks into the room filled to the brim with older classmen. After a few seconds Wilbur looks over to the ocean of people. “I can bring you to your classroom if you want?” He asks, big brother energy coming off of him in waves.

He shakes his head, backing up as he pockets his phone. If they had Phil not walk with them, he wasn’t about to bring Wilbur along like he needed a babysitter. He wasn’t a child. He could find his way to his class by himself. “Have fun in… whatever you have.” He says, waving off the other. Wilbur opens his mouth, probably to interject, but he’s running off into the sea of people before the other could grab a hold of his sweater hood.

Finding his class wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. The hardest part being traversing the swamp of students all wanting to get to their class on time. He gets there in one piece however. When he does he’s quick to enter the room. The noise drops instantly as the door closes behind him. Chatting was still heard, but lower. People actually respecting space. He sighs, taking off the headphones.

Looking around he was met with an almost full classroom. The teacher sat at the front desk, her eyes scanning a pile of loose papers. She knew he was coming here, he thinks. So he bypasses the greeting he should have probably made and looks for a seat that no one has claimed yet. In the back by the windows was empty. Kids going everywhere but. He heads towards the seat and sits down. A main character placement, he thinks.

Techno puts the headphones on his desk as he fishes out his old notebook. His notes from his last school are still in them. If he was lucky the class was behind and all he’ll have to do is work he’s already done. The last thing he does is set his pencil and pens out on the table. The second bell rings and everyone clambers into their seats. The teacher stands, clearing her voice before she begins the lesson.

Around thirty minutes into the class the door creaks open, a teen who had no right being as tall as he was peeking inside. The teacher pauses, looks over and sighs. “Mr Beloveded.” She scolds lightly. “How good of you to join us thirty minutes late.”  

The kid seems to wilt at the words as he closes the door behind himself. Techno stares, something urging him to… sniff the air? He shakes his head to clear his thoughts. “Sorry Ms Blackstone. I was, uh, taking out the dogs. Lost track of time.” He says, shuffling over towards the walkway between the last and second row.

“Now then, back to what I was saying.” The teacher - Ms Blackstone? - sighs, returning to the white board. He doesn’t focus on her however. Instead he keeps his gaze on the new student. Well, late student, as Techno’s pretty sure he’s the only new student here along with Wilbur. Dyed split hair, piercings, black nail polish. The only other thing that told him he was obviously one of the teens no one sits beside was the fact he kept his head down all the way to the back row.

Wait, back row? The kid pauses at the desk beside him, looking up. His bag was already being set down before they locked eyes. Techno sat still, his notebook open in front of him as the late teen stood staring at him. His eyes wide, revealing a set of grey irises. He couldn’t help but compare the colour to one of a storm. “Uh…”

“Any day now Mr Beloveded.” The teacher calls, causing the class to erupt in laughter. A blush rose to the other teen's cheek as he quickly sat down beside him. It’s then that Techno realises why no one had sat here. Ms Blackstone does control work as she goes to quiet down the classroom. He winces. For the fact the room is now louder, or because he may have just inadvertently embarrassed the other teen, he has no clue.

After a few seconds class was back in session. Techno turns towards the teacher, his shoulder snow hiking up to his ears. The boy beside him gets his stuff out and starts taking notes. A few more minutes later they were given a book report. Because of cours Techno just had to go to a school where they live book reports. Everyone groans. He finds himself wanting to copy them. “Don’t worry class.” Ms Blackstone says excitedly. 

He could sense the evil intentions wafting off of her. “You won’t be doing this alone.” She’s a villain. “You're going to work with your table partner! The books will be assigned to the google classroom.” No, he takes back his statement. Ms Blackstone is the devil. Murmurs stretch across the class. Chatter and giggles as people pull out their phones to check what they got to read for the next couple of weeks.

He looks towards his headphones. It wasn’t that loud yet. He could do without them. “So…” He turns towards the voice, finding his assignment partner. “I haven’t seen you before.” The teen says, a hesitant smile on his face. “Ranboo.” He puts out his hand for a shake.

Techno grabs it, shaking it. “Techno.” He replies, letting his shoulders relax. So far so good. “I’m new.” He adds, like that wasn’t already apparent. “Just moved here a couple of days ago.”

Ranboo hums, his smile growing. “I hope Essempi is as welcoming as you imagine.” He says as he gets out his phone.

“Besides the wave of people shoving you around in the halls?” He states, rolling his eyes. “Haven't seen much of the place.” Ranboo takes out his phone, logging into the google classroom.

“I hope that isn’t a bad thing.” He says, clicking on his name. Techno couldn’t help but notice that Ranboo didn’t have another name next to his. If this was by table, then how was that fair? He leans in a bit to get a look at the actual assignment and book they have to read. “It’s very friendly. If you ignore the halls.” Ranboo turns the phone closer so he can see. At the action Techno gets a whiff of air.

The smell of dogs clings to his nose. Something was different, something stronger underlining the smell. Techno backs up a bit, to the surprise of the other. “The History of Starboard Lake.” He says, looking away. “Never, uh, read it.” He cleared his throat. There was something off about the smell. And he’s definitely going to ignore the fact he seemingly just smelt a guy he just ment.

“…Me neither.” Ranboo replies, shutting his phone off. “But I’ve heard of it. It’s a tragic romance if I remember correctly.” He nods, hands ghosting over Wilbur’s headphones. “Ms Blackstone always gives us book reports so the librarian, Miss Niki, doesn’t even have us use our library cards half the time.”

“How often do you get book reports?” He asks. Looking around the room it looked like everyone was pretty chatty with their group partners. From what he could guess Ranboo didn’t have one.

The tall teen shrugs, humming in thought. “Once a month? Usually followed up by a lot of questions, quizzes and learning about proper grammar.” He stuffs his phone into his jeans pocket. “I can pick up the book after school? Since you're new I don’t think you have a library card set up. Right?”

“Yeah, I don’t have one.” He agrees. “What do we do until then? There’s like, twenty minutes left of class.” The smirk he gets back is like a blessing and a curse. A blessing because this kid didn’t seem nearly as weird as he thought from him being obviously outcasted would intake. And a curse because he knows that look. It’s the look of mischief. Wilbur wears it all the time.

And he could never say no to a look like that. “I don’t think Ms Blackstone would mind if I take the new student for a tour around the school.” He says easily.

It’s easy to catch what the other was thinking. And with a matching smile he starts collecting his stuff. “Oh, I’m terribly lost.” He starts, packing his stuff. Ranboo snorts as he goes to pack his own. “How will I ever get to science after this? This school is a maze.” A pause. “It really is a maze.” He adds seriously after a few seconds.

Ranboo raises his hand, getting the attention of their teacher. “Can I show Techno around the school? He’s new.” He waves at the teacher, who seemed a little shocked at seeing him.

Then, like someone was just remembering they had a new student, she nods. “Of course.” She says. Gesturing towards the door. “But no disturbing the other classes.”

The tour turned out to be more practical than he thought it would be. Ranboo actually took time showing him around, even if both of them knew it was more to get out of the classroom than to actually teach him the maze of Essempi. There was never silence, even if neither of them were talking. The sound of shoes against tile, of screaming teens in there classes as the teacher tried to rangel them all into silence.

With it, the occasional question. “What other classes do you have besides English and Science?” Ranboo says as they head down the maths hall. He keeps note of the numbers on the door.

“Well, maths.” He starts, gesturing to the hall. Ranboo hums, looking at the doors also. “And History for the last period.” Ranboo wasn’t loud. Very informative and sarcastic when he talked about some of the teachers, but not loud.

“Who do you have history with?” He asks, eyes widening.

Techno had a suspicion this was going to break this conversation if he said the wrong thing. “I think his name is Mr Thatcher?” He says, trying to think back.

Looking over at the other, he’s met with a wide smile. “I have Mr Thatcher!” He says excitedly. “We’ll be in the same class together at the end of the day.” Which honestly? Didn’t sound that bad. Ranboo wasn’t annoying him yet at least.

“Cool.” He replies, the other leading him out of the maths hallway and into the art one. Pictures lined the wall in glass cases. Most of them were crudely drawn on, but others were actually impressive. It was his turn for questions. “Be honest.” He starts, making Ranboo turn towards him. “How awful is the food here?”

“I wouldn’t wish it upon my maths teacher.” He whispers, a fake shiver running up his spine. He looked ten seconds away from throwing up, though.

“That bad?” He asks as the wonder to a different hallway. He tried to keep a mental map of the school. It wasn’t at all working.

“I’m pretty sure they haven’t cleaned the pits in decades.” A shiver now runs up his spine at the thought. “…I hope you brought your own lunch?”

“I did.” Ranboo relaxes at his words. “So, what classes do you have—“ He’s cut off by the bell ringing. A forest flashes in his peripherals. It struck him like a lightning bolt went through his ceiling. Techno lurched forward, pain shooting across his eardrums. For a split second he thought he had been shot point blank in the side of his head. He catches himself on the wall as the noise grates against his senses.

He lifts his hands and slams them over his ears. It hardly hides the bell ringing, signalling the end of the first period. His vision goes blurry. Hell, he thinks, would have been quieter than this. It was far too much. Why was it so loud? Why did it hurt!? He half expected blood to start pooling in his palms. His fingernails dig into his scalp, which made everything worse. Techno closed his eyes, hoping the lack of blur would help.

He hardly registers the hands fumbling around his neck. The feeling of something coming off of his shoulders and pushing against his hands was the only thing he could focus on. The action causes his eyes to snap open, looking for whoever was touching him. The blur of teens coming out of class causes him to push away from whatever was there. His back hits a line of lockers.

A lock digs into his side. He needed it to stop. Please just have it stop. His hands are forcefully pushed away as something slides over his ears. Silence. A storm cloud stares back at him, threatening rain. Quietly, like he was whispering, Ranbo says, “Are you okay?”

Techno has to take a minute to just breath as he stares at his classmate. The noise of the bell and students passing by dies down and he reaches up. Touching the headphones placed over his ears. They were Wilbur’s. How did they get there? Looking back at Ranboo and where his hands hovered over his ears, he quickly figures it out. “Sorry.” He stutters quickly, letting his hands fall from the side of his head.

Ranboo sighs, taking a step back. “No need.” He waves him off, looking far from okay himself. “The bell here is really loud for no reason. Should have warned you.” And it really was. Louder than any other school he’s been to. Abnormally so.

“It’s not your fault.” If anything, he blames whoever installed the thing. “Thank you, though.” He gestures to his brother's headphones with shaking hands.

“No problem. I saw them around your neck, thought it would be the best thing.” Ranboo shrugs, looking out across the sea of people. They all moved around them. The teens' height, which rivalled Wilbur’s, served as a great barricade. “Will you be okay—“

“I should get to class.” He cuts the other off, dusting the nonexistent dust off his pants. “See you in history.” Before the other could reply, Techno was forcing his way past people. Practically running down the hall to get to his next class on unsteady feet. He secures the headphones better around his ears as he goes. That was not fun.

Stupid sickness.

Chapter Text

Techno didn’t care if he looked like an ignorant fool at the moment. He kept Wilbur’s earphones over his ears, drowning out anything and everything he could. He kept his eyes on the textbook in front of him, only sparing glances at his teacher and whatever they were teaching.

The voices of his classmates grated against his ears like it was a cheese grater. Chipping away at his resolve every minute. The headphones blocked most of it out, making it tolerable. With the help of his ears not actively bleeding out maths class went by in a haze.

He forced his hand to flip the page of the textbook every few minutes to try and pretend he was actually paying attention. He doesn’t think he was fooling anyone but they at least didn’t question him. So he takes it as a win.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know the material. If he really needed to he could just catch up at home. Where things are quieter and less bone chilling. Techno would rather be reading a whole other language than having to listen to this screaming classroom.

Give him Greek any day. But this? Maths? This was horrible. Torture even. Whoever invented it should be tried as a witch. It’s after an hour of this when he’s finally set free. The bell goes off, this time not sending him spiralling, signalling lunch time.

Techno never was in a rush to leave the classroom. He would wait until the mob of teenagers left, giving him the freedom of space as he slowly packed up. Today was not one of those days. The second the bell went off Techno was grabbing his bag and racing out of the room. Not even bothering to put the textbook back.

He makes his way down the hall, practically running at this point. He beats the hall, finding the boys bathroom with ease. He remembers Ranboo and him passing it an hour ago. Point one to the human GPS, crappy school hallways zero. Techno shoves open the door as he finds a stall, locking himself inside.

He lowers the lid of the toilet and sits down, picking up his feet. Throwing his bag on the floor, Techno takes a deep breath. Slowly - like an inch a minute - he lowers the headphones to his shoulders. When nothing attacks his ears he sighs. “Silence.” He mumbles.

He doesn’t get much time to sit there as his phone pings. Taking it out of his pocket, Techno sees a text from Phil. Opening it up he’s brought to the family group chat. It was a picture of Phil with a duster in hand and science google so his face. The text read out; Cleaning the basement, pray for me.

Techno shakes his head snorting. He sends a quick don’t get eaten back. Wilbur pops up in the chat, being his dramatic self as he tells Phil to arm himself with a shovel. Another ping draws his attention to another chat. He opens it, quickly reading over the text sent.

Where are you? Do you want to meet up for lunch? Wilbur’s and his chats were usually filled with the two of them asking where the other was. They talked more in person than they ever do over the phone. Techno agrees to meet up outside the cafeteria before pocketing his phone.

Grabbing his bag he unlocks the stall and goes to leave. Having lunch with Wilbur sounded like a distraction from this lasting sickness. Which he was grateful for. The door opens before he could even reach for the handle. A strong smell hits his nose, sending him stumbling back.

It reminded him of the scent clinging onto Ranboo. The smell of a wet dog combined with something else hidden underneath. He goes stiff, shoulders hiking up to his ears. When did the room close in? Why did he suddenly feel trapped? “Sorry.” He stutters out, raising his sleeve up to cover his nose as subtly as humanly possible.

He watches as the guy in front of him eyes widens. As he breathes deeply through his nose. His hands tighten around the straps of his bag, half covered by an obnoxiously neon green hoodie. Techno doesn’t know why he notices this, but he does. It’s like his eyes are looking for the tiny movements and actions.

They stand there in silence, both of them seemingly not knowing what to do but stare. Someone yells from the hall, causing a jolt of sound to snap him out of whatever this was. The guy looks seconds away from saying something but he pushes past him, grabbing his ear phones and lifting them over his ears.

He quickly loses himself in the roaring crowd. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling the other was still watching him. Analysing him like he did the other. Which made zero sense. The feeling of eyes on his back begged to differ.

~ ☾ ~

Human GPS two, hallways zero. Techno’s starting to think no amount of poor school design could beat him. He sees Wilbur standing at the doors to what he assumes is the cafeteria, head held down as he clicks away at his phone. He smiles, walking up to the other. Wilbur catches sight of him before he could think of ambushing the other. “Baby brother!” Wilbur yells, his face brightening.

He groans, shoulders slumping as he shuffles closer. “Don’t call me that in public.” He says as he takes off the headphones. There were much more nicknames his brother had for him that were far less embarrassing. Why did it have to be that one?

Wilbur pockets his phone as he leans on him, arm wrapping around his shoulders. “Oh come on.” He starts, grinning. “I’m just telling the truth.”

“Lies.” He pushes the other off his shoulder. Wilbur rolls his eyes, easily taking his spot beside him as they walk down the hall. He had no idea where they were going, only that it was away from everyone else. “I’m older than you in experience.”

“What have you done that I haven’t?” Wilbur asks.

Techno could think of a lot of things, but all of them he rather not tell the other. “Win Dad’s affection.” He states. Wilbur gasps, clutching at his chest like a total buffoon.

“You wound me, Techno. You're a truly horrid individual.” It’s his turn to roll his eyes. “Plus I’m obviously the favourite son. You are a rat he picked up from the hospital and mistook for a child.”

“A rat?” He snorts. That’s a new one. The two fall into easy banter as they find a staircase to eat their lunch. Thankfully it didn’t smell like weed or any other nefarious actions. They sit on the last step before the stairs turn to head up to the second floor, bugs between their feet. Techno with an egg sandwich and Wilbur with tuna. Two cans of sprite because neither of them were healthy teenagers who actually drank water like they were supposed to.

Techno cracks his can open, taking a sip of the lukewarm drink. “How has your first day been so far?” Weird, he wanted to say. Loud, crazy and abnormal. But he doesn’t think Wilbur would take anything less than absolute positivity.

“Boring.” He shrugs, ripping away the plastic wrapping around his sandwich. The other hums. The conversation ends there. It leaves Techno feeling like he should’ve said more. But then that would just be lying. This way he’s telling the truth without revealing all the ugliness of what he truly felt. This way he doesn’t feel the eating acid of guilt.

“How was—how have you been so far?” Techno takes a bite out of his sandwich. The creamy egg with mayonnaise filling his mouth. He pauses, chews and then pauses again. It tasted bland and washed out. He swallows the bite in his mouth as he looks down at it. It never tasted so unfulfilling before.

“Great, actually.” Wilbur says through a mouthful of tuna. “My teacher said since I’m ahead of what they are learning in the class I can just do whatever I want. He did give me the material to skim over, but I just played video games on my phone instead.” Wilbur takes a sip out of his drink, clearing what’s in his mouth. “And since I have English for second period all I was assigned to do was read a short story and answer some questions until the class is done with the reading he assigned them.”

Techno nods along as he watches his brother start to ramble. His eyes trained on the sandwich he’s eating. His mouth waters and his stomach growls. Practically begging him to eat something other than an egg sandwich. He shakes the feeling off as he continues to eat his lunch. 

He keeps tabs on the time, waiting for his phone to read a minute before the bell rings to signal the start of class. When it does he covers his ears and packs his bag quickly, Wilbur following suit. They both know to start gunning for their classes before the rush. “I’ll see you after school by the front.” His brother calls, scurrying up the stairs like a cat who has been dashed in a bathtub full of water.

“I’ll get there before you do!” He yells after the other, swinging his bag onto his back as he descends the stairs. He’s very thankful that literally all his classes are on the first floor. Checking the halls for any wandering teachers, Techno makes sure that he won’t get caught as he starts sprinting in the direction to his science class. The bell goes off but no one leaves their classrooms.

Instead people slowly slink out from where they hid away for lunch time. Talking as much time as possible to get ready to head to class. Techno slows his steps as he sees a teacher peek out from their classroom door. When he spots a door with a familiar set of numbers he slows to a brisk walk. “I’m too good at this.” He mutters underneath his breath as he peeks into the open door.

The only person here was a teacher. Hopefully his science one. He takes a step inside. She spares him a quick glance, smiling before she returns to marking papers. Techno finds a seat in the back of the class, away from the windows and in the shadows of the room. He knows logically the teacher would be keeping more of an eye on him since he’s new and he’s in the far back. Yet it felt more out of sight than anywhere else to him.

For the next few minutes people flood into the classroom. Most were chatting amongst their groups of friends as they found their places. He caught a few looking over at him before whispering. But he didn’t mind it. He was the new kid on the block after all. Could he even say that? It wasn’t very true, as he practically lives inside the forest. New kid in town then. That’s more accurate.

Techno takes out his notepad and pencils. A girl slides in beside him doing the same. She has a pair of AirPods on that tells him she definitely doesn’t want to be bothered. She only confirms it as she lets her hair out of her ponytail. Probably to block them from the view of the teacher. He refocuses back on the front, not wanting to give her away.

He does however slide Wilbur’s earphone back to his shoulders, as it seems like these people weren’t as loud as his maths class. Whispers filtered around the room as the teacher stood. She began to write something on the whiteboard. The door swung open once more as a few more kids came in.

An ugly neon green hoodie comes into view and he snaps his head to the right. The same guy from the bathroom walks in. He’s talking with another guy. The guy suddenly stills, eyes moving off of his supposed friend and onto him. Techno watches as recognition crosses his face, his jaw setting. His friend doesn’t seem to notice as he drags him over towards a set of seats by the window.

Science class begins with a second bell. Techno flinches from the noise. Surprisingly it’s not as loud as before. “Today we’ll start with going over yesterday’s homework.” His teacher starts, turning to face them. She has a set of goggles on her forehead, her hair tied up into a tight bun. Lime slice earrings paired with a green scrunchy finishes off her weird fruit look she had going on.

Trying to focus on the next few minutes of class was like trying to beat Phil at Mario Kart. It was practically impossible. Each time he thinks he’s going to be able to jot something down anxiety rushes over him. Sending him looking across the room. Only for his eyes to land on a pair of hazel ones. He’s always the first to turn back to the teacher, seeing the bathroom guy turn back a few seconds after.

Then he’d get lost in the lesson, only to feel a spike of fear cross over him again. He’ll look over, meeting the same eyes form the same person before repeating whatever game they had going on over and over again. What was his problem? Techno has never met someone so hellbent on staring at him before. For no reason, he should add. He hasn’t even talked to him.

His fingers tighten around his pencil, skilled writing turning to crap. His hand began to have a quiver, something dark and dangerous swirling in his stomach. Might be his food trying to come back up. The walls felt more like jail bars, keeping him locked in and caged. Looking up toward the door he was met with it being closed. Sealed shut, for all he knew. He turned his attention towards the window.

Maybe he could break it if he really needed to. Pick up his chair and throw it through the glass. That will show his nerves to stop acting up. He wasn’t trapped. He’s choosing not to make a fool of himself and run out the room like a child chasing after the ice cream truck. Techno takes a deep breath in, refusing to look back over at the guy. The feeling of being watched doubled, like the wasn’t even turning back to the front anymore.

The bell rang way too late for his likening. Like this morning Techno spared no time in shoving his things in his bag. This time with much less care as he rushes around the girl sitting beside him. He races out of the classroom, throwing open the door. There goes his whole I’m fine facade. Techno just starts turning corners, not caring where he went. What did he even have last period?

Social studies? Art? He had no clue. His mind felt like it was screaming at itself. He wouldn’t say he was frantic, more in a hurry. He had places to be, hall teachers to avoid. He gets lost as quickly as he leaves science class. Techno slows down, teens push past him as he tries to get his bearings. He has no clue where he ended up. Of this was the east halls or the west.

“Of course it’s now I get lost.” He spits, trying to look around people. He gets a backpack shoving him to the side for his efforts. He won’t be able to find his way around in this crowd. It was a lost cause. He’ll end up late but waiting for the halls to clear would be better then ending up further away to his last class of the day. And he really doesn’t feel like asking a teacher. Social interactions weren't on his to do list.

Techno stands right up against a wall beside a line of lockers. Their paint was flaking off, locks looking far too worn to be actually secure. He focuses on that for the next few minutes. How many attempts could he get in if he attempted to break into a locker? It wasn’t like he was going to. He was just curious. You never know when you're going to need to break into someone’s locker for definitely legal reasons.

When the hall clears enough for him to actually move without being bumped by someone, he pushes off the wall. He looks left and right, debating which way to go. Ranboo hadn’t taken him this way. Nothing looks familiar. But the urge to get further away from where he came chews at him. “I’ll loop around.” He mutters to himself. He’s already late anyway. What’s a few more minutes?

Looping around proved to be a pain when you forget what turns you took to begin with. Techno keeps at a steady stride however, passing some students who stare lingering in the halls. Either they're skipping, horribly lost or have spares. After what feels like forever Techno comes up to the stairs he had lunch at. “A checkpoint.” Grinning, he tries to think about where the last class could be.

He’s practically walked all over the place, meaning there’s only one place to go. The smell of wet dog meets his nose, causing him to freeze. He takes a few seconds to just stand there, waiting for something to happen. When nothing does he shakes the thought of someone being there away as he turns. Wanting to just get to his class and hide for the rest of his life.

His back slams against the school wall, his head hitting it with a loud thud. The air in his lungs is knocked out of him, leaving him wheezing and clawing at the hands around his shirt collar. “What—“ A deep rumbling growl has him snapping his mouth shut, eyes squinting open.

He knew he smelt something weird. “What are you doing here?” The kid from before practically snarls. The first thing that comes to mind is how acute the sound was to a wild animal, the second was that he’s pretty sure he’s going to get beat up on his first day of school. Which wasn’t at all a fairly kind thing to do to him, he’s going to silently mention.

Techno looks at this kid he’s pretty sure followed him all the way from science class. That or he’s very unlucky. “This is a school—“

“Don’t play games with me!” The hands on the collar of his shirt tighten, pushing him more into the wall. The others all up in his face now, practically baring his teeth at him. The smell of the teenage boy's breath wasn’t at all helpful right now. “What are you doing in my territory? Unannounced?” He reiterates.

“I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to go anywhere I want? This town isn’t off limits to only people who wear ugly hoodies.” He snides, nose scrunching up. Who does he think he is? Claiming a whole town like this?

The guy pauses, looking lost for thought. “That’s not—stop ignoring the question.”

“Then stop making your question so ignorable.” He replies with. Techno’s self preservation has been thrown out the window. If this dude was going to beat him up, so be it. At least he’ll make him feel like a total fool before he gets his ass kicked.

The other’s nose scrunches, making him look like he was about to sneeze. “Do you want me to claw your eyes out? Because if you keep being a smartass I will.”

“I like my eyes, thank you.” He replies. The other raises his hand, making it easier to breathe. The small victory is squashed as he curls his hand into a fist, pulling it back. He flinches, arm moving up to cover his face. “Okay wait! What do you even want!? I literally just moved here a couple of days ago!” What had he done to have someone already want to beat him up!?

The fist lowers lightly, yet he keeps his arm over his face. He knows better than to lower his guard. “I want you out of my family’s territory, you mangy mutt.” Territory? Mutt? Techno frowns, trying to think back if Phil mentioned any powerful family living here. If he did, he definitely missed it. “We don’t take unwanted charity cases.” He wasn’t a charity case. Okay maybe a little, if you think about how hard this move was for him. But the other didn’t even know that!

“I have literally no idea what you're talking about man.” He stresses. Then a thought came to mind. “Did I take your seat or something?” 

The fist lowers to the others side, the guy looking at him like he was the crazy one. “My seat?” He deadpans, his grip lessening on his collar. 

“In science class.” He must have, it’s the only thing he’s done today that might have pissed someone off. He was the first one there. He must have taken this kids seat and he was overly protective of it or something. “I’ll move tomorrow, if it means that much to you. You don’t need to beat me up over a seat, dude.” Because really, he doesn’t care that much where he sits.

Something seems to click in the other's head as he lowers his fist, hand loosening around his shirt collar. His eyes roam him up and down. “You really don’t know.” He whispers. Which Techno’s pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear.

“…Don’t know what?” This was turning weird. The guy shook his head, finally letting him go. His knees give out and he goes tumbling down to the ground. It’s then that he realises he was shaking. He opens his mouth to say something, to questions whatever this interaction was, but the teen is storming off before he could even say the first word. He watches silently after him.

His head starts to pound with an incoming headache. “Alright then…” He huffs, clutching onto the end of his shirt. “Totally normal human interaction right there. Nothing crazy at all.” The guy turns the corner and his shoulders slump. A mix of relief and loss mixing together to make an odd mixture in his gut.

That… was weird.

Chapter Text

Walking to his history class felt much longer than it should have been after that weird interaction he had. To be completely honest, Techno thought of skipping class. He could make up an excuse, but it’d get both Phil and Wilbur worried, and he would rather not be cocooned for hours on end because of it. So, he decided to suck up his curling anxiety and go to class.

There was probably only a little over half-an-hour left anyways, since it took him so long to even head in the right direction. Since it took him so long to even find a direction to head in. Techno grips the straps on his bag, looking out for the room numbers. This is the only class he has to practically run across the school to get to. He’d honestly take going up stairs than having to cross the whole school for this.

Opening the door, he’s met with a bunch of voices, though one of them is louder than the rest. “I promise you guys will get free time. Just let me finish this—“ The teacher cuts himself off, eyes spotting him in the doorway. “Oh, hello.” The teacher's shoulder relaxes.

He takes that as his cue to head inside. His teacher puts out his hand for a handshake, Techno takes it with minimal thought, and with a quick firm shake the man is turning back to the rest of the class.

The air felt heavy, hanging in his lungs like stones. Techno wondered if the eyes on his back were his imagination. His anxiety acting up at the wrong times like always. No one seemed to care that he was here. Going on about their conversations like he was nothing more than a shadow on the wall. Only a few teens we’re actually taking notes. “Your Techno Craft, corect?” He nods, the teacher going over towards his desk to type in his attendance. At least that’s what he thinks he’s doing. “Take a seat wherever it’s open.” He waves him off, clicking away.

Turning, he looks for somewhere to sit. Only to catch the sight of stormy eyes. Ranboo had his head resting in his arms, facing two other boys. A blonde and a brunette. But there wasn’t an open seat near them. There was one in the back near the window. A single spot, lightened up by the sun showing through the window. Techno internally groans at the exposure. You don’t get this pale by going outside and sitting near big windows.

He heads down the main row, eyes set on the spot. The headache from getting slammed into a wall was finally catching up to him. He wouldn’t be surprised if he passed out the moment he sat down in his seat. He wouldn’t even fight it. “Techno?” A soft and familiar voice calls out. He stops in the middle of the classroom, turning to gaze down at Ranboo. Whose head was now off of his arms, lifted up. He’s smiling, he realises. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

“Oh…” He tries to think of an excuse. He doesn’t know how Ranboo would react to him saying he basically got targeted in the hall before coming here. For some reason he doesn’t think he would take it very well. He should do what he always does. Play dumb and project baby brother vibes. It always worked on Wilbur. “I got lost…” He filters off, hands curling into fists. Something wasn’t right here.

Techno sniffs the air, because it seems like that’s just something he does now. There it was again, that scent. The smell of wet dog, something unrecoverable underneath. Something foreign. He looks beyond Ranboo, gaze turning to the other boys sitting there. The scent seems to be emitting from them, curling around their frames like a wicked odour. He feels his limbs lock in place. The noise around them disappears, layering underneath the sudden panic in his mind.

The memory of it being there before he’s shoved against the wall comes to mind. Literally minutes ago. “What the fuck?” The voice snaps him out of whatever funk took over his mind. The words belonged to the blonde, eyes a striking blue. Not like the stormy grey's Ranboo had. Nor the deep browns of the person on the edge, who has also turned his attention over to them. He watches as the two take deep breaths, something akin to recognition crossing their faces.

“What is it?” Ranboo says, looking back to his friends. “What’s going on?“

“He’s one of us.” The brunette replies, pointing at him. Techno doesn’t like the sound of that. Not after being slammed against the wall minutes prior. So he does the only logical thing he could. He turns on his heels and storms down the classroom, back towards the front. He ignores the look of the teacher, who’s peeking up from his computer. This was not going to turn into a thing.

No more weird scents, no more loud noises, no more sickness. Techno was going to call Phil and get the hell out of here. He wasn’t going to deal with this for the rest of the year. Nope, no way. Phil will just have to sign him up for online school. The sound of two chairs scraping against the floor is what sends him running. He knows who’s chairs those are and the sudden third one only confirmed it.

Techno slams the door to the classroom open and he bolts out down the hall. He doesn’t care where he ends up. If he has teachers poking their heads out of doors to see who’s thundering steps are running down the hall. “Wait!” The blonde calls, sounding like they had just exited the classroom. Oh god, they're following him now. Techno looks behind him. Ranboo and the two smelly kids are chasing him.

“Why are you following me!?” He yells. His heart beats a little faster. His lungs work a little harder. The sound of his own voice grates against his ears. “Leave me alone!” He adds, his voice cracking at the end. Turning gravely. He swears the brunette’s pupils widen at the sound.

“Yes, why are we chasing him!?” Ranboo huffs out. He’s falling behind, feet not being able to catch up as they storm down the hall.

“You're one of us!” The blonde once again shouts. Techno chooses to ignore the obviously crazy teenager, turning back to figure out a way out of this situation. They're clearly able to keep up with him, meaning he needs to switch tactics. He can hear Ranboo and the brunette shouting to each other, but he focuses on a solution to his trailing problem.

He turns a corner, feet sliding against the tile. He scans the hall, spotting a door that doesn't look like it belongs to a classroom. He bolts over towards it, having to stop himself a little bit before getting to the actual door. He stumbles in front of it, hands gripping the handle. Ignoring all the stupid reasons people die in horror movies, Techno checks to see how far away they were.

The two randos were much closer than he liked. Ranboo looked to just be turning the corner, having slowed down significantly over the duration of the chase. “Wait!” The brunette holds up his hand, like pleading was going to stop him. “We just want to talk.” Well he doesn’t.

Techno opens the door and rushes inside, slamming it closed behind him. Looking up from the handle he searches for something to block the door with. It looked like he found himself in a large storage room. Paper, school supplies, cardboard and extra chairs and desks stacked up on each other. “Perfect.” He huffs. Grabbing a desk and a few chairs, he starts to block the door.

He was never good at stacking games. When he was younger Phil would go on and on about him knocking over his brothers towers and they were babies. Like he had a moral compass at the age of three. But he tries his hardest to make something that couldn’t be knocked down. A chair underneath the knob, desks pushed up against the whole door. Everything else he could get his hands on just to make a wedge.

At the end he was even slightly impressed with himself. Techno takes a step back, hands clutching his sweater in a white knuckle grip. The obscurity of the whole thing crashes onto him then. He had just run away from three people because they smelt like dogs. In school no less, like they were after this specifically. He must have lost his mind.

The door bulks against the barricade causing him to jolt. Taking a step back he prepares for it to all come tumbling down. Another jolt of the door pushes against the desks and chairs, but it doesn’t wane. He lets out a surprised chuckle. Really, that wasn’t supposed to work. “What’s your name, open the door!” The blonde calls from the other side.

Something in the back of his mind tells him to do the smart thing and not open the door. He decides to follow that instead of the kid who just chased him down a hallway for no reason. “How about you leave me here instead? I think that would be healthy for both of us.” He replies, looking around the room. He spots a dusty old broom.

“I think,” The brunette voices. “That you should come out so we can have a very civilised conversation about how you're in our territory.” The familiar wording has him inching closer towards the broom. What is with these people and territories!? Was there some kind of gang here that he wasn’t aware of? Because picking on the kid who just moved here seemed like a very rude and awful thing to do. At least give him the week to figure out everything.

“I have no clue what you guys are on about.” Techno grabs the broom, lifting it up.

“Me neither.” Ranboo says. Thank god someone is as confused as him. “A little explanation please?” He takes a deep breath in, finding that it didn’t help his racing heart. He pauses, hand pressing against his chest. He was breathing far too heavily. It didn’t hurt like the way running in gym class clogged up his lungs. Thinking back, how long was that hall? How fast had he run down it?

Why wasn’t he more tired? He felt winded, chest heaving quickly. But he didn’t feel like he was about to collapse. That wasn’t normal for someone who pretended to be allergic to the outside world to have a reason not to talk to people. “He’s a you know what.” Someone asks, he doesn’t know who. He’s lost track of the voices.

“Wait, you don’t mean…” Ranboo whispers, sounding awestruck. Techno backs up until his back hits the wall. He clutches onto the broom. Heightened hearing, sense of smell and now he can run without needing to be benched for ten minutes. Something was wrong with him. Wrong in the way a simple cold couldn’t do. Wrong in the way that has him wondering how the hell could staying in the cold could lead to something like this.

“Sam didn’t tell me any new people were moving in. This is—this is weird. He shouldn’t be here.” Was the storage room always this small? Or had the roof just decided to start caving in, to add onto Techno’s shitty day? He started to take longer, deep breaths. He wasn’t going to have another anxiety attack today. He wasn’t going to let that happen. “New kid—“

“His name is Techno.” Looking at the door, he contemplates his escape. He can think about today’s events later. When he’s not in risk of being shoved up against the wall. “But Tommy, are you sure? I mean, you said I smell kind of like you guys?” Stalking over towards the door, Techno grabs one of the desks. He slowly picks it up, sliding his feet to not make a sound. Setting it back down on the ground, he tiptoes back over to get another.

“Ranboo, he stinks of it.” It takes longer to remove the mess he’s made. But during all of it he doesn’t back a single sound. “Anyways, Techno. What’s your deal? You can’t just be showing up here like you own the fucking place. Stinking up my school.”

“You didn’t have to say it like that.” The last thing in his way was the chair lodged underneath the doorknob. It would back a sound no matter how careful he was. So as silently as he can, he grabs it with one hand. The other goes to tightly grip the handle. The broom was left tucked underneath his armpit. “What my friend is trying to say is. What pack are you from—“ Techno throws the chair to the side and kicks open the door.

A startled yelp, one sounding scarily dog-like, meets his ears. Telling him that he had at least hit one of them with the door. He hopes it wasn’t Ranboo. The other had been nice to him before the whole, I’m friends with people who chase strangers down school hallways. “What the hell!” A snarl meets his ears, screaming of danger and anger. His shoulder hike up to his ears as he bolts out of the room.

Techno whips around to see the brunette on the floor, Ranboo looking shocked to the side and the blonde moving to grab him. Taking the broom from underneath his armpit, he raises it in time to hit it right over the blonde's head. He lets out a pain filled grunt as he stumbles to the side. Dropping the broom he turns on his heels. “Techno wait! This is just a big misunderstanding!” He hears Ranboo yell.

“The hell I’m waiting! I’ve had enough of people chasing me for no reason!” He shouts back, not daring to catch a glance as he sprints down the hallway. The only good thing about this whole situation is the fact he doesn’t hear footsteps following him.

“Let me get this straight.” Phil starts, eyes on the road. Techno slumps in his seat, hands playing with the tassels of his sweater. He could practically hear the gears turning in his dads brain. Wilbur was looking out the window, gaze turning to him every few minutes. A mix of concern and confusion on his face. Techno looks away as to not see what else was plastered in his brother's gaze. “Instead of calling or I don’t know, texting me that you started to not feel well, you kept going to your classes.”

“Don’t forget that he ran out of his classroom.” Wilbur pipes in, now fully turning to face him. “And disappeared for the rest of class, causing his teacher to call the office.”

“You're not helping my case here, Wilbur.” He states, crossing his arms over his chest. Wilbur shrugs, turning back to facing the front.

Phil sighs, running a hand through his hair. Anyway he looked at it, Techno couldn’t tell the truth. They would worry more, keep him under lock and key. Knowing his dad, Phil would have already gone storming into the office demanding they call the parents of the boy who held him against the wall. Wilbur would stick to him like hot glue, never leaving his side for one moment during school. He can’t have that. It’s not fair to anyone no matter what he does, so at least here he has a choice.

“You should have called me.” Phil says quietly. It punches him in the ribs, the guilt. He stays silent. There wasn’t much more to say. To them he ran out of the classroom because he still felt sick, like he was going to throw up. To them he had a normal day with a bad ending. It’s a few minutes later, when the houses become trees that cover the sky, does Phil say anything else. “You’re not going to school tomorrow.”

“What!?” Whipping his head towards his dad he’s met with the back of the man’s head. “You can’t be serious.” In any other instance he’d love the day off. But now? When being home ment he could hardly do anything at all? It was a sentence worse than death.

“You threw up, Techno! You're obviously not well enough to go back yet and I don’t feel comfortable with you doing so. You said you’d call if something happened and you didn’t. So you're staying home tomorrow.” Phil’s voice had an edge to it. The type of edge that told him that Phil was in full dad mode. Nothing he can do will change his sentence.

“Can I stay home?” Wilbur asks, hopeful.

“Did you throw up today?” Phil’s deadpans. Sparing his older brother a quick glance. Wilbur pouts, already knowing the answer. “Then you’re not going to school tomorrow.”

Techno leans against the car door, pressing his head to the window. If he focuses he could hear little chirps from the birds in the trees. Which shouldn’t be possible. Not when they were so high up. He shakes the thought away. “I’m fine.” He huffs, not giving up just yet.

“I’m sure you are.” Phil says, tapping his fingers against the wheel. “Think of it as a you and me day! Don’t you want to hang out with your amazing dad and skip school?” He sends him a grin in the top mirror.

“That’s a loaded question.” Wilbur snorts. Phil flicks him in the check, causing the car to erupt in laughter.

Techno hears a whispered “You little shit.” That Wilbur doesn’t seem to catch. The rest of the ride home is filled up with lighter topics. Like how was your day, any clubs peaking your interest. Did they make any friends? He wasn’t at all surprised when Wilbur announced that someone named Fundy had adopted him into his friend group.

He also didn’t miss the way Phil and Wilbur looked disappointed when Techno muttered that he didn’t. When they got home he was ready to collapse in his bed. He kicks off his shoes at the front hall, dragging his own body up the stairs. It felt like a mountain after the day he had. No one bothered him as he closed his door and fell face first into his bed.

When Techno closes his eyes, hoping for a restful nap before dinner, he is met with the booming sound of his own heat. Beating with the rhythm of his pulsing migraine.

Chapter Text

The last thing someone wants to wake up to, is feeling wet. Least of all, a sixteen-year-old, who has no business feeling wet after waking up. His first thought was that he somehow, after years of waking up in the middle of the night to use the washroom, had an accident. But, the more he lays there staring up at his ceiling, the more he realises that he’s covered from head to toe in damp clothing.

Slowly, Techno pushes himself up, only to sit up in a pool of even more dampness. Looking down, he’s met with soaked pyjamas, his legs holding streaks of whatever got onto him. A shiver runs up his spine, the cold air of the attic causing him to freeze. What even was this? It couldn’t be sweat, not when he felt like a popsicle. Even his sheets were soaked through, leaving him sopping wet and confused.

Getting up from bed, Techno starts peeling off his clothes, scrunching up his nose at the smell that wafted off of them. It was like earth, mud, and freshly cut grass - a combination he didn’t enjoy waking up to. 

Not knowing what to do with them, he places his clothes on the side of his hamper, hoping it’ll dry there rather than mold on top of his other clothes. Then, he gets a spare towel and dries himself off before getting ready for the day, sparing occasional glances at his bed as he wonders if he should try and pat it dry.

A knock, that sounds suspiciously like Wilbur’s favourite song, brings his attention towards the stairs. “What is it?” Techno calls down, hanging over the rail as the door cracks open. 

Wilbur cracks the door open, looking up at him with a tired grin. “I’m heading off to school now, I wanted to see if you were up so I could say goodbye.” Techno watches as Wilbur’s eyes move from his eyes to his hair, squinting. “Did you take a shower already? I didn’t hear you come downstairs.”

“No, I just woke up?” Reaching up, he touched his head, only to feel damp strands of hair, then something else near the back. Pulling whatever it was out, he’s met with a leaf. Techno quickly throws it to the side, out of sight of his brother as he leans back over the rails. “Must be sweat.” He lies, sending the other a shaky smile. “Give me a second and I’ll be down.”

“I’m not going to wait forever for you.” Wilbur says over this shoulder, already turning away.

Techno turns and goes to grab his phone. “Yes you will!” He yells back, clicking it on and opening up his camera app.

“I know.” Wilbur shouts from somewhere below, the words sending a smile across his face. 

The door clicks shut as he goes about checking over his hair,  grimacing when he finds a small stick tangled up near his ear. What happened last night to cause leaves and sticks to end up in his hair? He couldn’t have sleepwalked again, could he? He would have made so much noise moving around the house, someone would have had to wake up.

But sleepwalking was the only thing that would make sense. He had had a bad habit of doing it when he was younger, and just a few days ago he’d sleepwalked outside the house without anyone hearing him. So, he had to have done it again, somehow getting back to his room unnoticed afterwards. “Please don’t become a thing,” he hisses to himself, using his phone camera to pick more debris from his hair.

The urge to take a shower hits him, as he wonders what else could have gotten onto him during the night. After he’s a hundred percent sure that his hair is clean of plants, Techno shoves his phone in his pocket and runs down the stairs to catch Wilbur before he leaves for school. Getting down to the ground floor, he sees his brother and Phil talking to each other. 

He slows, a tempting thought coming to mind. He could scare them. Pounce off the staircase and get back at them for babying him. Maybe he could even tackle Wilbur to the ground, like the older had done to him when they were claiming their rooms; it would be a perfect payback. 

He quiets his steps, keeping to the wall as he tiptoes down the rest of the stairs. He gets ready to jump out, shoulders hiking up to his ears as he readies his stance—

“—worried about him, Dad. He was perfectly fine during lunch yesterday.”

Techno pauses, stance dropping as he pushes himself further into the wall. They were talking about yesterday.

 “You know how Techno is when he’s sick, he doesn’t ask for help when it gets bad. He could have been hiding it from you.” Phil replies, sounding a bit resigned, like he was thinking over Wilbur’s words.

Techno wanted to interject, but he had the feeling it would only start to dig his grave. 

“But I know when he’s faking being well, I’ve called him out on it before. And if—no offence - but if he was feeling sick he would have just told me to keep it a secret from you. He wasn’t sick at lunch.” Wilbur sighs.

It wasn’t a secret that he hated being taken care of, and if push comes to shove, he’s going to go to Wilbur before Phil. Not because he didn’t trust his dad, but because Wilbur’s more likely to keep it a secret for him if it’s not that bad. Blackmailing an older brother is easy, blackmailing a dad is impossible. 

Techno strains his hearing, trying to pick up on any other words. “So he just suddenly got sick during period four?”  Yes, he wanted to shout out. He got sick and that was it. Sick of being chased by random people.

“I don’t think he was sick at all.” Wilbur confesses, and Techno freezes, breath hitching. Wilbur doesn’t believe him. Does he somehow know what happened? Was he one of the many faces he ran past in a last-ditch effort to get to class, and just not realise it? Surely not, his brother wasn’t hard to miss in a crowd, he would have seen him.

“What do you mean?” Phil seems to have the same thought. Techno just hopes whatever Wilbur’s about to say doesn’t throw him under the bus.

He hears an intake of breath before his brother's words hit his ears like a wave crashing down. “I think something happened yesterday that he doesn’t want us to know about.” Well, shit. There goes that secret. How many hours was that? How bad has he gotten at lying? Techno thought he was good at it, it wasn’t like he was out of practice. “I think he might have had an anxiety attack. He was so quiet after you picked us up…”

Wait, anxiety attack? His shoulders slump, a breathy exhale leaving him. He didn’t know what happened yesterday. Oh thank goodness, he didn’t suddenly turn into a bad liar. Maybe that’s not as much of a success as it feels, but he’s not going to lie and say he’s not relieved. “I’ll talk with him about it.” Phil says, cutting his internal cheering short.

There’s shuffling, sneakers against the floor. Then an anxious sounding whisper greets his ears. “You know I could—“

“Wilbur.” Phil immediately cuts the other off. Not harshly nor cruel, but in the way that makes it known he wants your attention. The dad voice that threatens ears to listen in the calmest way possible. “All I want you to do, is to go to school and think about any clubs or plays that might be happening. Let me worry about your brother.”

Worrying about him takes too much effort, he thinks. He didn’t need it, not when he’s handling everything perfectly fine on his own. 

“Are you sure?” Wilbur sounded like he wanted to argue, and Techno silently prayed the other didn’t. 

“Mate, I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve been alive. I can handle Techno.” Phil says, chuckling, like this was a normal conversation and not one that took his youngest on an emotional rollercoaster. Techno choses that moment to walk down, heavy with his steps to draw their attention. 

Two heads whip towards him, like they were deer caught in a headlights. 

“Good morning Techno.”

“Morning Dad.” He tries to keep it casual, ignoring the ache in his chest. It was a mix between being revealed and stressed. He didn’t know what to feel about the conversation, so he’s not going to feel anything about it. He’ll just ignore it and hope that Phil forgets about Wilbur’s worries.

“You're so lucky, Techno.” Wilbur huffs, throwing his arms around Techno’s shoulders. “It’s pouring out and you get to stay here and do nothing all day”

“Doing nothing all day doesn’t sound very lucky to me,” He rolls his eyes, forcelessly pushing Wilbur off his shoulders.

The taller just pouts, moving over to lounge on Phil instead. “At least you get freedom.”

“Hey, you have freedom.” Phil argues, moving towards the door. Wilbur walks with him, feet shuffling against the floor as he tries to keep his position on top of his dad. “Remember what I said yesterday? Think of it—“

“As a you and me day, I get it.” Techno shoves his hands into his pockets, bouncing in the balls of his feet. “I’ll see you when you get back from dropping off Wil. And Wil?” Wilbur looks over, tilting his head to the side like the dork he was. “Don’t get pushed into a locker.”

“Don’t worry Techno, I’ll be back before you know it.” They open the door to leave, and true to Wilbur’s word it was pouring outside, the sky covered in dark clouds, blocking the sun from view.

Techno holds the door as the two rush towards the car, trying their best to not get soaked, letting the cool air hit him, chilling him much more comfortably than it had earlier. He waves goodbye from the doorway as they drive off, before shutting and locking the door.

“My freedom begins.” He muses to himself, making his way towards the kitchen. Right now, freedom looked like raiding his dad’s coffee stash and pushing hotdogs around in a pan.

~ ☾ ~

The day was filled with Techno flicking through channels; trying to find something interesting-enough to hold his attention for a few hours. When Phil comes back, he sits down with him, the two quiet as they watch the TV. Every few minutes, one of them would make a comment that would lead to a twenty-minute conversation, the show forgotten until they remembered they were actually watching something.

Lunch time comes and goes, and finally Phil gets up from the couch, stretching. “I want to show you something.” He says, a suddenly thoughtful look in his eyes.

“Go for it.” Techno turns down the TV’s volume, and watches as Phil leaves.

Phil comes back a bit later, with his hands holding a rolled up blueprint. Warmth fills Techno’s chest at the sight as Phil spreads it out before him, Techno curling up his knees to his chin. He stares at the blueprints his dad had set out on the table, they’re easy to read, having grown up with the once-architect.

Phil was a master at laying-out and creating things, he’d made blueprints for all sorts of places. But after the Incident, he switched jobs to be home more often. He does more home-renovation consults, art commissions, and tutoring now.

It helps that Phil was an only child with rich-as-hell grandparents, so all the money they had went to him after they passed. 

“What do you think? I have a couple more ideas in my room somewhere.” Phil sits down beside him with a smile.

“It looks nice.” More than nice actually - the whole deck would be redone, a pool added into the backyard, along with a shed. They would have space to plant flowers, and even a little garden for vegetables. There was even a little note in the corner, about putting a rope swing on one of the sturdier-looking trees near the back of the property. 

The whole plan looked like a mix of modern architecture with a cottage-core vibe. Techno half expected to see fairies on the blueprint - it looked like something out of a story.

“Are you sure? I have other deck layouts—“

“Dad.” Techno cuts his dad off, fingers grazing over the paper. “It’s perfect.” Never before had something been perfect, close to adequate maybe, but never perfect.

When he was younger, Wilbur would take him down to the parking lot behind their apartment. Wilbur had hooked up a hose and connected a makeshift sprinkler to it, held together by tape, determination, and pure childhood luck. They’d ran through it for hours.

When they were done, all tired out from running through water, Wilbur had said that he always wanted a backyard. Techno didn’t understand at the time, the parking lot was fine, but the look on his brother's face had told him that it wasn’t. Now he understood. Having a backyard with grass, flowers and an actual pool. That sounded amazing, though, “maybe add a barbecue.”

“A barbecue?” Phil chuckles in surprise. 

Techno hums, pointing to a place on the deck. “Right there. We could have like—you said once you used to have barbecues with your dad.” The last part comes off softer, and he looks away. Phil wouldn’t talk much about his own father, but when he did it was always midsummer barbecues and long night car rides.

He hears Phil take an intake of breath, body moving more towards him. “I think adding a barbecue would be a great idea.” Phil says, nudging his shoulder against his. “I’ll make you my father’s world famous cheeseburgers.”

“The one’s grandma was always ranting about?” He asks, smiling. 

Phil nods, his face lighting up. Picking up the blueprint, Techno looks over it again, mapping it out in his head. In a few months, they’ll have a pool, and he can guess that Phil is already thinking of the type of flowers they’ll grow. 

Three hard knocks come from the door, and Techno freezes, looking over at the hall. “Dad?” He asks, wondering if Phil had already somehow made friends.

Who could have come over? More so when they live in the middle of nowhere. 

“Stay here.”

Before he could reply Phil is getting up off the couch, moving towards the hall. He scrunches up his nose, ignoring the urge to listen to his Dad, and instead he gets up, following a few steps behind Phil as they walk towards the door. He should move to the front, open the door instead - push Phil behind him and answer whoever was there. 

Preferably tell them to leave and take whatever Girl Scout cookies they have with them. 

He almost does, taking a step forward to do that very thing, but then something in him whines, like a sad dog. He ends up freezing in place, staying behind Phil. Where it’s safe, where he’s protected. Phil could handle it, it says. Phil may be older but he’s not old. And Techno’s only sixteen, young and vulnerable out in the open—

Phil opens the door, the sunlight bleeding in from outside. Peeking around Phil he’s met with a man with a hand raised. Like he was about to knock once more. His eyes scan the man up and down, looking for any hidden dangers. He sees none, only that this guy was built like a gym rat and was as tall as a lamppost. Things he didn’t like when faced with a stranger.

“Hello?” Phil greets, hand on the edge of the door. “Can I help you?”

“Not really.” The guy smiles, looking over at him before focusing back on Phil. “I wanted to introduce myself, we’re neighbours.” He points towards the woods, like they could look past hundreds of trees to see something only he knew was there. “I live a bit away, down a split path deeper into the woods.”

Phil seems to brighten, holding out his hand for a shake. Techno has to force himself not to grab it and place it back at the man’s side,shaking his head and blinking like he can wipe the thought away.

“I saw the pathway to your house while driving around the area - unless that one leads somewhere else. The names Phil, Phil Craft.” They shake hands, leaving the teen slowly inching away.

This started to look like a conversation, one he didn’t want to be a part of. He’s itching to go back to the living room, or even head back up to the attic. Anything to get away from the stranger.

“I’m Sam Ward. I would have brought something with me, but I’ve been told my cooking is terrible multiple-times by my sons.” He jokes, or at least Techno thinks he does. Might just be horrible dad humour.

Techno turns to leave, a master plan of escape right in reach, when Phil springs a ”Would you like to come in?”

He stops in his tracks, dread pooling in his gut like a poorly-digested two-day-old burrito. Why did his dad have to be so welcoming!? 

He hears the door close, and the clicks of another set of shoes walking across the floor. Turning, he meets Phil’s gaze. A warm one, a fatherly one, one that’s spells if you don’t be on your best behaviour I’m going to make you pull out weeds for the next week.

To Techno’s horror, Sam starts before turning to him. “You must be Phil’s son, right?” The man asks, putting out his hand.

Techno doesn’t reach out for it, but his hands do hesitate awkwardly in the air. Phil had always preached politeness, unless the other person is either a weirdo or you get the I’m-about-to-become-a-victim vibe. He had felt neither with Sam, yet a mental alarm bell still goes off in his head. He wanted Phil to step in, to make Sam back up, to protect him.

Sam lowers his hand after a moment, hunching his shoulders just a bit, and just like that, the alarm bells dim. Just enough for him to not make a fool of himself in front of his new neighbours. “Yes.” He answers the question from what feels like ages ago, shuffling awkwardly to the side. “The names Techno.” 

“Nice to meet you, Techno.” Sam smiles, “my boys are around your age, they go to Essempi High School.”

“Techno and Wilbur do too.” Phil comments, waving at them to follow him. The two of them follow towards the kitchen.

“What do you like to drink? Coffee, tea, ice water without the ice?” Techno rolls his eyes, taking up his spot on the counter. He doesn’t look to see if Phil’s scolding him silently.

“Water is fine.” Sam replies, pulling out a chair at the table. “I really only came here to introduce myself.”

“Well now you're getting water and a chat.” Phil moves around him, getting out the water jug from the fridge. “You know, I don’t meet many other dads.”

“That’s because you have no friends,” Techno cuts in, making Sam stifle a chuckle.

“And with you ratting me out I won’t have any!” Phil ruffles his hair as the man walks past, making Techno squawk and batt the hand away. “Ignore him, teenagers are not reliable sources.”

“Only if you ignore my boys when they say the same thing.”

 Phil snorts, pouring out a glass of water and setting it in front of Sam, who nods, “thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Phil dismisses as he goes to put the water jug away, leaving Techno to supervise their guest as Sam drinks water. Because he needs to be supervised. Obviously. 

“How did you hear about this place?” Sam ends up asking as Phil sits down across from him at the table, leaving Techno alone at the counter. “It isn’t really well known as a popular tourist location.”

The teen leans back, head resting against the top counters, trying to look casual and uninterested, but he wants to hear the answer to the question. He never really got to dig it out of his dad. 

Phil runs his hands through his hair, leaning back in his own chair. It creaks, because of course it does. Techno’s pretty sure it belonged to his grandparents before Phil got his hands on it. 

“Would you believe me if I said it literally landed in my lap? It was a very lucky find - I’m not sure why no one picked it up before me. I was ready to start a bidding war over this house,” the blond chuckled lightly.

That didn’t give much to the imagination. Landed in his lap?

Big houses in the middle of nowhere don’t just land in your lap.

“It’s probably because of the history in this town.” Sam replies ominously, setting his cup down. Techno frowns, looking over to Sam suspiciously. 

“History?” Techno probes, not able to keep his thoughts to himself. He wasn’t aware this place had a history. It was in the middle of nowhere, so he had always thought it was just one of those little crevice towns with bad movie theatres. He can't be that surprised, it’s not like he’s looked the town up.

“It’s mostly disappearances and weird animal sightings.” Sam waves off with his hand, looking over at him. There was something about the look in his eye that suddenly made the teen even more on edge. 

Like this had now become a private conversation between the two of them.

Techno didn’t want this to be a private conversation. He didn’t want to have a conversation.

“But back in the day, like really old days, people liked to believe the forests here were inhabited by werewolves.” Sam goes on, ignoring Techno’s inner turmoil.

He has to be joking, no one in their right mind would assume animal sightings to be werewolves. Are people seeing hairy men out hiking and assuming them to be monsters? That sounds kind of rude, if he’s going to be honest with himself. 

“Werewolves? You can’t be serious,” Phil chuckles, voicing Techno’s thoughts and drawing the other’s attention back towards him. Techno relaxes a bit now that their neighbour’s eyes were off of him. He nods along with his dad, because werewolves don’t exist.

Each one of Techno’s family members had an interest they dived into like a fish to water. Wilbur loves music, wanting to make a band when he got out of high school. Phil loves the arts, anything to do with drawing and building he loves to do. Techno himself loves languages like Latin and Greek, old stories and mythologies. 

Of course those weren’t ever real, they were just stories.

“Every town has their own monster. Sirens, witches, ghouls. This town, it’s the werewolves. It’s just more believable because of the animal attacks and disappearing hikers.” Sam counts the creatures on his hand, lifting finger after finger. “You know, they say werewolves can hear better than humans, and they can smell better than anyone around. You might not even know you are one if you were born with it.”

The last couple of days flood into his mind, of having to wear Wilbur’s headphones so as to not have his brain explode. The wet dog smell that followed some people in his class. The nightmare he had all those days ago, which started this awful sickness.

It was all coincidences, surely. Techno wasn’t about to think Sam’s stories were true. You might not even know you’re one - you would though, wouldn’t you? You can’t just be a werewolf and not know, ignoring that they weren’t real to begin with.

But what if they were real?

“I wouldn’t be worried if I were you though. My family has lived here for generations, all you have to do is not be an idiot and you’ll be fine.” Sam ends off, taking another sip of his water casually, like he wasn’t making Techno question his own species.

Monster’s weren’t real, Techno was taught better than that, knew better than to believe in things like these. Yet a pit opens up deep in his gut, chilling him to the bone. What if they were real? What if the dog he saw that night wasn’t just a nightmare?

Techno looks down at his arms, trying to remember the feeling of claws against skin. Was he ever bitten in his dream? No, he wasn’t, he couldn’t have been. 

“I have to go.” He blurts, pushing himself off the counter.

“Techno?” Phil turns, concerned, moving to get up out of his chair, but Techno puts up a hand, shaking his head.

“I’m a—feeling a bit queasy. I’m just going to go up to my room. If that’s okay?” He fumbles, though this time it’s not a lie. His head felt like it was filled with cotton, the world around him like dripping syrup making him nauseas. He took a step towards the door, wondering if he should head to the bathroom or his room.

Phil’s brows furrowed, hands flexing like he wanted to reach out towards him, but eventually he sits back down in his chair, a small smile crossing his face. “Of course. There’s nausea meds in my room if you need any - anything else you come ask me about.” He points towards the direction of the stairs. Techno nods once before tuning his attention to Sam.

Their neighbour is looking right at him, like there was something on him. Did he miss a stick this morning when he was cleaning out his hair? “Nice meeting you, Sam.” Techno waves awkwardly, just because he’s having an internal crisis doesn’t mean he can be rude.

Sam seems to snap out of whatever thought he’d gotten lost in, and smiles, waving back to him. “It was a pleasure.”

With that he turns his back on the two adults, Techno waits until he’s around the corner to start running, taking the stairs two at a time. He holds his stomach, nausea rolling through him in waves. He was over-thinking things, stupid things. Monsters weren’t real, werewolves weren’t real, he didn’t get attacked that night.

It was all in his head, his very flu ridden head.

Chapter Text

Techno is an idiot, a stupid, paranoid, idiot, but he couldn’t help himself as he clicks from site to site. The words werewolf were left in his hot bar, ones he refuses to look at because he was too focused on debunking whatever thoughts were brewing in his mind. Werewolves aren’t real, this was just a spontaneous need to research them, to find any information he can on the deadly magical creatures.

He click off of one site and onto another, but everything was the same, with all the information on werewolves being from old stories that have no references beyond old poems created by people who saw them as myth. They were as real as his Mums fairy tales she’d tell him when they both knew he should have been asleep already.

“This is useless!” He yells after a while, slamming his laptop shut. The sound causes him to wince, hands slowly raising it to see if he had broken something. After confirming that he hadn’t broken his laptop, he tosses it onto his bed before getting up, gut twisted up in knots of frustration. It was all the same big, monstrous, seven-to-eight-feet-tall form, red-glowing eyes, and a thirst for human blood and destruction.

Or even worse, romance novels where the main character is a girl his age dating a monster over double it. Techno shivers at the thought, if a three-hundred-year-old werewolf lady tried to hit on him he’d call the cops, not fall in love with her. “I’m worrying over nothing.” Techno whispers to himself, like that could magically fix his worries. He takes a breath in, running his hands through his hair. It gets tangled near the ends, but he ignores it, looking over towards his window, he wonders if there were any wolves out in the forests. 

Sam had said there was, he thinks, he doesn’t really remember between his overactive imagination. Walking over towards it, he sits down on the plush seating, curling up into a little ball as he lets himself rest on the cold muli-coloured glass. “I’m not some…” Shaking his head, he crosses his arms over his chest, letting his eyes drop closed. “Some freak.”

He doesn’t sleep, emotions are too high to let him pass out the way he wants to, so he hears it when someone knocks on his door, quietly and without rhythm. It was his dad, probably here to check up on him. He didn’t feel like being fretted over, yet something in him yearns for it anyways, urges him to open his mouth and call out, maybe ask for a hug—

“Techno?“ Phil calls, voice not muffled by the door, “I made some chicken soup if you're up for it?” At that moment Techno’s stomach growls, alerting anyone in a thirty metre radius that he was hungry - okay, maybe not that far - but Phil clearly heard it by the laugh he hears from the stairs. “I’m coming up.”

Opening his eyes he looks over in time to see Phil coming up, a pink food tray in his hands with a bowl on top. “You didn’t have to.” Techno says halfheartedly. He chokes down the want to lunge for his dad, the man was holding a tray full of hot soup, it wouldn’t end well.

“Of course I had to, you're not feeling well.” Phil replies happily, looking around the attic for a place to set the tray down. “I need to get you some bedside tables and a desk, it’s so minimalistic here.” Phil notes. Which Techno sort of agrees with.

Besides the few things scattered around everything Techno had could fit in his dresser or school bag. Back at the apartment there wasn’t enough space to make the place really his own, so he’d never thought about decorating.

Phil’s still looking around for a place to set the tray down, so taking pity on his dad, Techno points to a spot on the ground next to the window, “You can just put it down here, I won’t step on it.” Techno says.

Phil hums, walking over and setting the tray down on the ground, he backs up a bit, then with a hand gestures back towards the stairs. “I’ll be in my office if you need me, okay? Try to get some rest so you can beat whatever sickness you picked up.” Phil moves to leave, and Techno fully intends on letting him go, but then the want to tackle his dad is back. It’s like an incessant itch he couldn’t ignore, and after everything that’s been going on he doesn’t have the energy to fight it off.

Techno pushes off his little couch, arms stretching out as he lunges at Phil, hands grasping at the older man’s clothes like it was his last life line. Techno pushes his head onto his dads neck, pretending for a second that everything is going to be fine.

He wasn’t going crazy, or turning into something from the myths. He pretends that his classmates don’t keep chasing him down hallways to corner him and push him up against walls, or that he needs to keep up an emotional wall. For a few breathless seconds Techno hugs his dad, wishing above all else that everything was going to go back to normal.

Phil’s hands move up to wrap around him and across his back, resting his cheek against his own. Techno lets out a shaky breath, willing himself not to break down. Now was not the time for the waterworks. The want in his chest fades, leaving him content to just stand there for hours.

Then what he’s actually doing dawns on him and his face starts to heat up, no doubt a blush overtaking his cheeks as he jerks backwards, yet he doesn’t dare leave the hug. “Techno?” Phil questions, a slight frown placed on his face as he raises a hand, moving Techno’s bangs out from his face and tucking them behind his ears. 

“I'm sorry.” Techno blurts, not knowing what else to say. Techno needed this, but now it felt embarrassingly childish. 

“For what?” Phil’s brows scrunch up in confusion, lips parting, then like a switch his dads eyes widen, dating towards Techno’s arms and in a rattled voice, he says, “Did you cut—“

“No it’s—I didn’t do that.” Techno shakes his head immediately, cutting the older man off before he could even finish those words. Techno promised himself, Phil and Wilbur he wouldn’t relapse and he has stuck true to his words, he wouldn’t go back to that mindset if he could help it.

Phil looks away from his arms, confusion overtaking the short panic that was there.  “Then what is it?” Phil asks, hands gripping onto his shirt.

“I don’t know…” Techno confesses, not knowing what to say, what do you say after rushing your dad to hug him? For no other reason then it felt wrong not to?

“You don’t know why you're sorry?” Techno shakes his head, hands clawing tighter around Phil. “That’s okay. You just tell me when you’ve had enough.” Phil’s arms tighten around him into a more secure hug, Techno felt the need to bury himself in the others embrace, to forget the world for a few minutes and just be calm.

Techno let’s go after a few more minutes, shoulders slumped in relief, Phil doesn’t move out of reach, hand moving up to cup his cheek. “Is there something I should be concerned about, Techno?”

Techno knew this question was going to come up, there was no way Phil was going to let this drag on, this was more then just new town gitters, but he had hoped he’d have more time to figure all of this weirdness out. “No, I’m good—“

“Please don’t lie to me.” Phil cuts in, his words like a hot iron blade, Techno’s heart dropping at the words. Phil was frowning, but even Techno could tell the other was hopeful. It’s sad thinking he couldn’t give him the honesty his dad deserves.

“…I can’t tell you.” Techno gives in, taking a step back. He couldn’t tell Phil that he’s nineteenth percent sure he’s some kind of living myth, that would end him back in a mental wing at a hospital. What he could do was admit that there was something, something he wasn’t ready to talk about.

That was healthy, right?

“You can’t or you don’t want to?” Looking away Techno wonders what would cause the less amount of backfire. The silence answering for him Phil sighs, shoulders hiking up as he grabs his hands. Techno let’s him, needing the comfort too. “Whenever you’re ready to tell me, I’m here to listen.”

He doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready, they hardly touched on any of the other issues Techno choses to ignore, nevertheless whatever is going on now.

“When I’m ready I’ll tell you.” Techno agrees, squeezing his arms. He needs to figure out everything first, but he’ll tell Phil, when he’s sure of himself.

“Until then.” Phil pats him once on the shoulder, forcing a strained smile onto his face. Techno could tell his dad wanted to keep questioning him. “Hug me whenever anything gets to much.”

Techno shakes his head, putting a hand to his chest he tries to sound as monotone as possible. “Dad, if I start doing that my brand as your emotionally constipated son will be ruined. Think of the brand, Dad.” Techno complains halfheartedly.

Rolling his eyes Phil goes to head down the stairs. “Your brand was ruined the second you cried about Wilbur going to middle school and leaving you in elementary.” Gasping, Techno pretends to take great offence, Phil laughing as he desends the stairs. “Get some rest!” Phil yells before shutting the attic door behind himself.

Feeling light, like he could start floating, Techno whispers, “I will.” Turning, Techno picks up the tray Phil left him and sits down, blowing on a spoon full as he begins to eat. 

~ ☾ ~

The rest of the day went by was normal, with Phil picking up Wilbur from school, who immediately clings to him in anoying older brother faction for the rest of the night. The two only seperate when it comes time for bed, school once again being put on Techno’s schedule for the next day.

That morning he wakes up early to the scent of chocolate pancakes flooding his senses, Techno’s mouth watering at the rare breakfast treat as he heads down the stairs and into the living room, once again being the last to rise.

“Sleeping beauty.” Wilbur greets, bowing his head dramatically as he flips a pancake onto his plate from the stove.

Phil was sitting at the table, coffee in hand and his laptop set beside him, blueprints for some water feature project covering the screen, a plate of chocolate pancakes set in front of him. Rolling his eyes, Techno grabs a new plate, swiftly stealing a pancake from Wilbur’s stack. “Beast.” Techno grins, fleeing from Wilbur’s spatula as he rounds the corner. “Morning Dad.”

“Morning Techno.” Phil greets back, looking up from his laptop, raising his cup as a hello. “I was about to come wake you up.” He says, taking a sip of coffee.

“Yes, because you definitely look like you were getting ready to come get me.” Techno deadpans, walking back towards the oven. Resting his elbows on the counter Techno holds out his plate for another pancake.

“What makes you think I offer my food to thief’s?” Wilbur questions as he raises an eyebrow, poking his plate with his spatula.

“Because you’ve stolen more of my energy drinks then I’ve taken your precious breakfasts.” Techno shoots back, holding his plate out more. “Pancake please.”

“You're evil, you know that?” Wilbur grabs another pancake from the oven pan, placing it on top of his last one. “I’m stealing your next energy drink.” Wilbur states, waving his spatula around. 

“There goes another pancake.” Techno grins, swiping another one off Wilbur’s plate before darting away, placing his stolen goods beside Phil as he sits down.

“What—Dad! Tell Techno to stop stealing from me!” Wilbur wines, looking from his empty plate to Techno’s stack of chocolate bliss.

“It’s called karma.” Phil pipes in, taking a sip of his drink. “You should learn the word.”

“‘You should know the word’, do you know what you sound like?” Wilbur threatens, whisking away the last pancakes on the pan and plopping them onto his plate before he sits across from Phil. Wilbur reaches forward and in a quick grab nabs Phil’s coffee mug. “A man who’s coffee is the next to go.”

“If you take a sip, you’re walking to school.” Wilbur places the mug back where it was, Techno snorting at the display as he bends his pancake in half and takes a bite. Wilbur always overstuffs his pancakes with some kind of fruit or chocolate, the food bursting with flavour no matter where you bite down on it.

Out of all of Wilbur’s signature breakfast meals, this one was Techno’s favourite. Chocolate has been a guilty pleasure to him for years, so he savours each bite. When Techno’s full,  a single pancake still left on his plate, he puts it onto Wilbur’s, earning a disgusted look from his older brother, who takes it anyways.

“That’s my cue to start the car.” Phil leans back in his seat, stretching his arms above his head as an audible pop sound rings out, immediately Phil’s looking down at them. “Don’t—“

“Your poor bones, Dad.” Techno fake whinces. “They're rusting.”

Wilbur shakes his head, taking the last bite of his pancake. “Not rusting, dear brother, breaking. Our poor father is nearing the end—“ Wilbur’s cut off by a rag being thrown at his face by the older man, who gets up to walk toward the hall.

“Clean the dishes before you come out!” Phil calls, disappearing out into the hall.

“He’s turning us into maids.” Techno drawls, picking up his and Phil’s plates and dropping them off into the sick. Wilbur hands him over his licked off plate, setting up the sick next to him as they begin the familiar routine of washing, passing, rinsing and drying the few dishes they had.

Soon enough the two brothers were descending the stairs towards the family car. “Techno, catch!” Phil shouts, tossing over the house keys. Techno catches it with ease, turning on his heel to lock the door before running over to claim his seat in the back of the car. Phil and Wilbur get into the front seat, the long drive to school starting off early then it had before.

~ ☾ ~

Going to English class that morning felt unnerving, after what happened on the first day of going back to school Techno was filled with a type of feeling that he tried his best to ignore, but after Sam, his new neighbour, showed up and started to put thoughts into his head, Techno couldn’t help but start to wonder if the weird kids that day knew more than they led on.

By the end of the day, Techno will know if they do.

Walking into English class Techno makes his way towards the back. He wasn’t surprised to see Ranboo in the seat he took up before, the kid’s head down as he scrolled through something on his phone.

Techno stops once he gets to the isel, taking a second to think of how he was going to approach this. “Hello.” He greets, hands in his pockets.

Ranboo looks away from his phone, jolting once his eyes land on him. “Techno!“ Ranboo shouts, setting his phone harshly on the table. “You’re back.” Ranboo notes sounding surprised.

The surprise does nothing to quell the nervousness in his stomach, Techno’s insides doing flips like his body was a circus.

Techno takes the seat beside Ranboo, shuffling it more towards the window. Of course he was back, it wasn’t like he was going to get run off by a bunch of weirdos, more so when Techno’s pretty sure they were on to something he didn’t quite understand at the time.

“You know something.” Techno states, ignoring the questionable greeting, he shifts in his seat so he is facing the other, pointing his finger at Ranboo’s chest Techno puts on his best nonsense face.

The results are immediate, Ranboo’s eyes growing wide as he hunches in on himself. “I don’t know what you mean—“

“Either I’ve gone crazy, or you know more than you first seem to about what happened on Monday. And I would really rather not be crazy, so start talking.” Techno asserts as he shoves his finger forward, keeping his voice low as students shuffle in from the hall.

Understanding dawns on Ranboo, his shoulders relaxing, the other looks around the room for a few seconds before cupping his mouth and leaning closer towards Techno. “I am so sorry for Tommy and Tubbo scaring you, they went overboard with all of that, but I’m really not the one who can explain this to you. Talking to your parents or to them specifically during lunch would be easier.” Ranboo rambles.

The non-answer has Techno bristling, he didn’t ask questions just to be redirected, Ranboo seems to see this as he winces, holding up his hands. “Honestly, I’m really bad at explaining how territory’s work. I hardly understand the ordeal—“

The bell signalling the start of class cuts Ranboo off, causing both of them to whip their heads towards the front. Ms Blackstone stands at the front, eyeing the students who were rushing in from the hall and scrambling to get into their seats before attendance starts. “It’s not a race, the bell has already gone off, just get to your seats.”

“We can continue this later.” Ranboo whispers, getting out his notebook. “I promise.” He says.

The class quiets down, making it too late to argue with Ranboo, Techno huffs, getting out his notebook and pencil alongside the other. It would be useless to try and fish for information from the other when it was so quiet, and it’s clear that Ranboo wasn’t going to give anything up while in class.

Techno would have to wait until lunch.

Ms Blackstone starts to teach the class about how to break down a book while reading and the steps to a good book report, the whispers Techno hears around the room tells him they’ve heard it all before, just in a different font.

Soon enough the class is released to actually continue on with there work, the noise starting back up again.

When the explanation is over, Ranboo takes out a novel from his bag, sliding it over towards him. “It’s The History of Starboard Lake.” Techno looks down at the book, frowning, it wasn’t the shortest novel he’s ever seen that’s for sure. “I started reading yesterday when I figured out you weren’t coming to school.” Ranboo explains.

“I wonder why.” Techno sasses back, taking the book as he flips to the context page. “Maybe it’s because your friends ran me out.” He scoffs.

“They didn’t…Okay maybe they did.” Ranboo sighs, biting his bottom lip.

“How far did you get?” Techno asks, tapping along the chapter names, moving on. If he’s not going to get his answers, well, answered then he could at least start on the work he missed yesterday.

Ranboo looks over at the chapters. “I got to chapter three.” He replies, tapping on the cover.

Techno hums, flipping to the third chapter, he leans back in his seat as he begins to scan the pages quickly.

He tries to pay attention and at least finish a chapter but the longer Techno sits there, the more something feels wrong, invasive, he quickly figures out that something wasn’t agreeing with him.

A hardly there pain starts up low in his stomach, as time goes on it grows until Techno loses all concentration on the story in front of him, the thought of a new symptom to whatever’s going on with him crosses his mind and Techno groans, closing the book and setting it on his lap.

Why now of all times did something new have to start happening and why was it a stomach ache?

“Techno?” Ranboo whispers, drawing him out of his thoughts with a light tap on his shoulder. “You okay?”

No, Techno was not okay, but he wasn’t going to say that nor was he going to fall into the habit of going home, Techno’s going to ignore it, maybe if it gets really bad try and sleep through a class or something.

“I’m fine.” Techno grits out, closing his eyes as he leans his head against the chair.

“It doesn’t look like it.” Ranboo replies, concerned.

Peaking an eye open, Techno gives Ranboo a look, one that says to drop it, the same way Ranboo had closed up on him. Ranboo looks like he was close to doing the opposite, but something in Techno’s gaze must change his mind.

Techno slides the book back over to Ranboo’s desk, turning to look out the window instead, the pain is worse now, his whole abdomen alight with pain, Techno curls in on himself, setting his arms on his desk to try and get some sort of comfort, shifting every few minutes to ease a part of his stomach.

It doesn’t work.

The bell rings after what felt like way too long, everyone practically running out of the classroom to get to period two, Techno forces himself up and grabs his bag, slinging it across his shoulder.

Ranboo was waiting for him, standing beside the desk with his own things packed and ready to go. “We’re going to the fountain.”

“Why?” Techno moves past him, sparing Ms Blackstone a glace before leaving the class, Ranboo fits himself right beside him as a sort of human shield from the foot traffic.

Ranboo takes his hand, practically dragging him off into a different opposite of Techno’s next class, the taller teen leading the way. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve watched you look terrible for twenty minutes and that doesn’t bode well with me. We’re friends, I’m not just going to leave you because you're like Tommy and too hard headed to ask for help. So you're going to drink some water and I’m going to drag you to the nurses office.”

“I’m not hard headed.” When was he ever hard headed? Techno was fine, it was a small stomach bug that magically showed up and made Techno believe that every god there was had a personal vendetta against him. It'll go down in a few minutes, and if it doesn’t then so well, Techno will deal with it.

Ranboo snorts, the fountain coming up in sight.

It’s then when the pain bubbles, his throat closing up, mouth dry, with his diaphragm jumping like he needed to—

The world stills, the voices around them turning silent as Techno’s body jerks, a familiar sensation starting up in his gut as the edges of his vision began to blur.

“Trash can.” Techno stops in his steps, spitting the word out between a clenched jaw as he scans the student filled hall as panic starts to set in, being thrust into normal time by the will to not make a mess all over the hallway.

Ranboo turns, a question on his tongue, but stops at seeing the panic in Techno’s eyes. “What’s happening?” Ranboo quickly asks, looking around.

Techno doesn’t answer, reaching up so his hand was covering his mouth, his stomach bubbles uncomfortably.

Spotting a trash can on the other side of the hall, Techno breaks away from Ranboo and sprints towards it, hands gripping the sides just in time for vomit to race up his throat. 

The people around Techno take notice, but he doesn’t care as he lets his knees hit the ground, body jerking as he throws up the only thing he had in his stomach, Wilbur’s chocolate pancakes.

The whispers became louder and louder, like people were now yelling around him, Techno couldn’t even pull his headphones over his ears to protect his sensitive ears, too scared of tipping the trash can over.

“Techno!” One voice was the loudest of them all, Ranboo’s, the other teen scooping up Techno’s pink dyed hair in his hands and pulling it away from his face. “Oh crap—what the hell did you eat, dude!?”

Techno knew the other wasn’t looking for an answer, but between gasping for air and throwing up back into the can he’s able to spit out the words “Chocolate pancakes.” He grunts out.

The hands keeping Techno’s hair out of his face tighten and he winces, body trembling as he begins to dry heave, stomach empty, the hands in his hair move a bit, freeing one of Ranboo’s hands as he grabs for a phone. “Crap crap crap—“

Techno leans away from the disgusting smelling trash can, wiping at his mouth feverishly with one of his sleeves.

His neck pricks uncomfortably, ignoring the burning holes Techno feels on his back he bats at Ranboo’s hand, the other letting go without a complaint, dragging himself over towards the wall Techno leans against it, grabbing at his chest.

Why did it feel so tight?

“Something—somethings wrong.” Techno whines, the sound crashing into him high pitched and needy, sounding so much like he was some kind of wounded dog.

Ranboo spares him a frightened glance before he goes back to quickly typing on his device. “Of course there’s something wrong with you! You ate chocolate, Techno!” Rannoo yells, ignoring the looks of the students who refuse to mind their own business. “Tubbo’s asking how long ago did you have it?” Ranboo looks back up from his phone, the other was biting his lower lip, stalking over to crouch beside him.

Techno’s mind goes blank as the only thought in his mind was the fact he had to have brought this on himself, karma was a dangerous nature, and he’s been lying far too much about being sick, now the world is damning him to his very own lies.

“Techno!” Ranboo yells. Techno’s shaken harshly, taken out of his mindless state as he looks up at Ranboo.

Techno blinks up at the other. “Wa-what—“

“How long ago did you eat chocolate?” Ranboo asks slowly, his hand turning to soothing motions along his arm. “I need you to tell me.”

“Move out of the way.” A teacher Techno doesn’t recognize demands, shoing past the group of students, her voice fading out as Ranboo jostles him again.

“This mornin’.” Techno slurs, stomach squeezing painfully, an even higher pitched whine escapes him as he curls into a ball. “I don’t—what is happening to me?”

“An allergic reaction.” A new voice joins in, yelling over top of the warning the teacher gives him as a head of blonde hair slots himself beside Ranboo, it was Tommy, if Techno remembers correctly.

On the other side of his classmate Tubbo squats down, eyes frantic and wild, and Techno swears he sees the brown of his eyes flash yellow for a split second. “Ignoring the fact your parents fed you fucking chocolate , where’s your epipen?” Tubbo rambles on, padding his pockets down.

He doesn’t even get a chance to reply before Tommy’s removing his bag from him and ripping it open, the zipper popping up and clattering to the floor beside him. “There’s nothing in here but notebooks and pencils!” Tommy shouts, unzipping the side pockets.

“Boys, the nurse is coming, I need you three to move so she can help Techno to the nurses office—“

“He’s dying!” Ranboo shouts, losing his cool as he scrambles closer.

Neither Tubbo nor Tommy corect him. 

Why weren’t they correcting him?

“Techno came into contact with something he’s highly allergic to and he doesn’t have his epipen on him.” Tubbo speaks up at the bewildered look the teacher got, the look slowly morphing into horror as she takes out her own phone.

Techno shakes his head. He wasn’t allergic to anything. “I don’t…I…“

“Save your energy big man.” Tommy cuts him off, dropping his bag with a huff. “Ranboo does Techno have a locker?”

Ranboo shrugs, looking even more concerned than he was before. “I don’t know! He’s new so I doubt it!”

Another whine pulls its way out of his throat, Ranboo’s friends flinch at the sound as their heads snap towards him, eyes even more wide than they were.

Tommy’s eyes flash a blue speckled yellow.

Okay, Techno’s becoming delusional, that was to be it, he had to have passed out somewhere between throwing up and leaning against the wall because there’s no way Tommy’s eye colour just changed before his eyes.

“You’re okay, just hang in there.” Ranboo soothes, running his hand along his forearm. “Guys?” Ranboo whispers, turning away from him. “How long until Puffy gets here?”

“I don’t know…” Tubbo leans away, snuffing at the air, a hesitant smile forming on his face. “She’s in the building!” Tubbo yells, looking back over him, his voice fading out, going into one ear and out the other.

Closing his eyes, he hopes this was all a fever dream, maybe he’ll wake up in the backyard from this nightmare, Phil hugging him and complaining that Techno had worried him, Wilbur would be standing a couple feet away looking like a ghost, because he was scared, because Techno wasn’t currently in the hallway being fretted over because he ate chocolate pancakes that morning.

Voices flow around him like Techno was drowning under murky water, the image of what’s going around him clouded by muck as he tries not to drift forever under the water, a few voices he recognizes, some he doesn’t.

What made Techno surface from the metaphorical water, just for a split second, was the calming voice of a woman. “You're going to be okay pup, I promise you.” Techno can’t see her, his body in too much pain to even attempt to open his eyes, but he does notice the smell clinging to her body.

She was one of them.

Techno goes under once more, and he thinks he truly passes out this time, because the next time he comes close enough to hear voices again it was of the same woman demanding attention of others, her tone strict yet kind. “I need his stomach pumped, he ate something very toxic to his body, what was it—I’ll explain later, we don’t have much time!” Techno goes back under, feeling his body being jostled and moved.

All this because of a seemingly non dangerous breakfast with his family.

Chapter Text

Techno was running, his lungs aching for a breath his body did not allow.

Everything was so loud, the ruffles of the leaves as he runs by bushes, the snapping of trigs, the scraping of stones, the breath breathing down his ankles.

Something was chasing him, hungry, relentless, a hunter Techno never knew existed.

There’s a howl in the distance, calling to him, urging him to push forward and close the gap, someone was waiting for him.

Techno breaks out of the underbush, eyes landing on a figure near a cliff, with long matted dirty blonde hair that could have once been bleach blonde if it weren’t for the dirt.

Something bites down on his ankle, sending him sprawling across rocks. It digs all the way down to the bone, yet Techno feels nothing as he gazes upwards into bright yellow eyes. The face was blurry, but the eyes stuck out like a lighthouse during midnight.

Techno hears another howl, the noise coming from the figure this time. He reaches upwards and he thinks a plea falls from his lips, one to help him, save him. The figure opens its mouth wide, rows of sharp bloody teeth craning closer as they lean down, blood dripping down onto his cheeks.

“Find me.”

For a moment Techno thinks he’s dreaming, everything feeling floaty around him, like it wasn’t really there, his thoughts drifting by like they were some kind of desert mirage, there was a consistent beeping sound that Techno forces himself to focus on to ground himself.

Techno hates feeling floaty, like he wasn’t really there but was at the same time, disconnected from himself.

The beeping was steady, Techno flexing his fingers with the beat of the sound, using his left hand to rub against the scratchy blanket that was thrown over him, it chases away the floaty feeling and Techno squints his eyes open, finding himself looking up at a blindingly white ceiling.

Techno takes a deep breath and finds that his body aches like he’s been hit by a speeding car, and his throat is sore, mouth dry like he hasn’t drank enough water today.

The ceiling was bare, lights embedded into it with no type of fixture like there was in school, was Techno in the nurse's office? He thinks he heard the teacher saying they were going to take him to the nurses office to get looked over, but Techno passed out before he could get up off the floor to walk there.

Reaching up to rub at his eyes, a small pain flares up in his arm and Techno stops moving, head slowly turning to look down at whatever was tugging at him, only to find an IV inserted into his inner elbow.

Why was an IV needle on his arm, while he was at school, in the nurse's office.

The beeping sound was getting annoying.

Techno slowly follows the IV, eyes half lidded as he fights off the urge to rip the thing out of him, finding that it was connected to a bag of clear liquid, beside it a heart monitor.

Techno was connected to a heart monitor.

Why the hell was he connected to a heart monitor?

Thinking back on the events leading up to Techno passing out, he quickly finds out that most of it was fuzzy and blurred with panic, not all of it being his.

Ranboo had immediately started to panic at hearing Techno had a lovely breakfast with his family, calling his friends Tubbo and Tommy away from whatever class they had to help him out with whatever had overtaken him.

Then there was Puffy with the strict yet soft, nice, voice.

The things Techno knows are that he passed out, it has something to do with chocolate and that he’s in the hospital, because that fancy heart monitor definitely wasn’t in any high school nurse’s office, which left a lot of things unanswered.

Techno should be panicking, freaking out and thrashing out of bed, but he finds himself too tired to even rise to the logical conclusion to his day.

Techno stays laying there for a few minutes, he allows himself half an hour to just let his mind go blank, the beep of the monitor the only thing reminding him that he couldn’t stay laying there forever, no matter how bone tired he felt.

After around thirty minutes his urge to do something productive takes over and has Techno flinging his legs over the edge of the bed, hand gripping the poll of the IV drip, hoping his legs weren’t jelly as he tentatively stands. 

To his surprise, Techno didn’t crumble to the ground the first steps he took away from the bed.

Also to his surprise, someone chooses that moment to open the door to his hospital room.

Techno freezes, looking up at the door like he’s been caught stealing. A woman in pastel green scrubs pauses in the doorway, clipboard in hand with her brown and white hair tied back in a tight bun.

The women smelt like a wet dog.

She felt unsafe, an outsider, a threat.

All rational thought is thrown out the window as a mantra of danger-danger-danger thrashes around in his skull, sending Techno scrambling back onto the bed. The movement tugging harshly on the needle in his arm and the little pads on his chest, but none of them come loose.

Puffy puts her hands up, palms facing him as she stops walking forward. “My name is Puffy, you can calm down, pup, I’m not here to—“

A low and almost silent growl sounds out, the sound shocking Techno as he stills, the sound stilling with him. What was that sound, and why did it come from his side of the room?

Techno looks over his shoulder hesitantly, breathing speeding up as he scans the back wall, looking for the puppy that had somehow got into his room. He doesn't find it, instead seeing more hospital equipment.

Looking back over towards the intruder, Techno is met with Puffy holding back laughter, one of her hands over her mouth. “Sorry, sorry.” She takes a breath, lowering her hand as she smiles warmly over to him, which only confuses him more. She was dangerous, his mind was screaming that at him over and over again, so why was she laughing at him, or apologising. “That was you, Techno.” Puffy states.

“…No.” Techno denies, voice scratchy and sounding like he’s been screaming for hours on end, it definitely felt like he had. This stranger was trying to get into his head, confuse him, he couldn’t let her. 

It’s then that he realises she’s blocking the only exit in the room, there were no windows here, the room being illuminated by the lights in the ceiling. Techno was all alone, Dad and Wilbur being nowhere to be seen.

Phil had to be worried sick, sitting in the lobby of this random hospital with Techno having passed out during school. Techno promised him that he was fine, he’s not living up to that promise now. He feels horrible.

“Where’s my dad?” Techno asks, narrowing his eyes on the other, finding confidence from nothingness. Phil and Wilbur needed him to be brave right now, to figure out what’s going on.

Techno needs to know what has happened to him.

Puffy takes a step further into the room, setting the clipboard down before turning her attention back towards him. “Not here, we had to send him home since it was past visitation hours. He was in the lobby for almost the whole day.” She explains, watching him as she walks to the other side of the room.

Techno scrambles to get to the head of the bed, practically crouching on the pillow as he makes sure she never leaves his view. The other took a seat in a chair that was off to the side, crossing one of her legs over the other, leaving the door wide open.

The words dawn on Techno faster than the thought to make a break for it. “Almost the whole—how long was I here for!?” Techno yells, realising what that had to have meant. He was out cold for the whole day, doing nothing but laying here as his dad and brother were probably freaking out.

The doctor? She had to be a doctor, or a nurse, she wasn’t wearing a white coat, nods. “Two days, you would have woken up much sooner, but your body’s been under a lot of stress recently.” She explains, looking from him over to the door. “The boy’s said you're new here, it must be difficult being the only child in your litter at your age.” Puffy says slowly, frowning.

“In my…” Techno cuts himself off, biting the bottom of his lip he thinks back on everything, and he means everything. The nightmare, the sickness, the kids, the werewolf research rabbit hole he went down and now the chocolate. Techno had to be stupid to ignore all that now.

Either he was permanently changed that night, or Techno died that night and is living in a type of hell hole, by the fact the needle in his hurst every time he pulls on it, Techno thinks it’s the former. He hopes it was the latter, however, because at least then he wasn’t losing his mind.

“It has to be very stressful not having someone you could be yourself around that wasn’t just your parents. You know, I also never had any siblings. So I can relate in a way.” Puffy goes on, gesturing between the two of them. Techno feels his heart speed up, hammering in his chest as he legs give out, body being forced to sit on top of the pillow as he stares wide eyed at the older.

Puffy leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “I promise you neither me nor my pack mean you any harm. You were just a surprise, that’s all.” She explains, as if anything she was saying was making any sense.

As if Techno didn’t feel his whole life come crashing before his eyes, with his fears being confirmed by an actual adult, a nurse, who had no reason to lie to him. He was a werewolf, a monster, something that hurts people, kills people, something in legends told by the dead heroes' friends, because they didn’t make it through their fight against evil.

Techno doesn’t know what’s an overreaction or not, but he feels like freezing in his spot, jaw clicked shut, isn’t what most people would do after finding out you’re not human anymore.

The worst part was that she says this like it’s a normal thing, like Techno’s life wasn’t harmed in the worst way possible. 

Techno refocuses his mind on the conversation, choosing to ignore the growing panic in his chest, or else he’d crumble at the seams and he can’t deal with that right now. He’s a werewolf, this nurse is a werewolf, Ranboo’s friends are werewolves and probably that dirty blonde hair kid that attacked him in the hall was also a werewolf.

He’s surrounded by monsters. “You said…” Techno gulps, hands clutching the blankets underneath him. Keep it together, he needs to keep it together.

Someone knocks on the doorframe causing Techno to jolt, head whipping over to stare at whoever else decided today was ‘shatter Techno’s life views’ day. Standing at the doorway stood a man dressed in jeans, a grey shirt, black leather jacket and a thin gold necklace with a tiny crown pendant. A single pair of sunglasses was hanging off of the man’s collar. 

He reeked of yet another wet dog.

“Eret!” Puffy greets as she stands from her chair. She sends him a quick look before she walks over to the other. “I thought you weren’t coming until later?” She questions quickly.

Eret shrugs, raising his hands which were filled with two paper cups. “Sam said to bring over some coffee. He said you’d need it after what happened today with the mysterious pup.” The man explains. He hands one over to Puffy before looking around the room. His eyes stop on Techno. “Well this seems like a terrible first impression.” Eret sighs.

Techno tries to push himself further away from the two, finding that he couldn’t. All there was left was open air and he didn’t feel like falling off the bed. Eret waves at him, smiling. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were awake yet, little one. I would have given you two more time to talk.” Eret says.

“That’s why we agreed on a time.” Puffy says as she takes a sip of her coffee. “Doesn’t matter, you're here now. I’ve told him we’re the pack that resides here.” Puffy says to Eret as she walks over to sit back down.

“Oh, that's good.” Eret hums, setting his coffee down on a small table. He looks back over to Techno and suddenly the hair on his neck stands up, the man’s eyes a bright yellow. 

Techno wasn’t imagining it, the annoying needle in his arm made that impossible. He was here and the other had yellow eyes. He was one of them, one of the werewolves, one of the monsters. They were everywhere.

“You’re not in trouble, Techno, you did nothing wrong. But which one of your parents gave you chocolate?” Eret asks, his voice deep and gravely. Something in the back of Techno’s mind told him the other was pissed, not at him, Techno believed him when he said that. He was pissed at someone else.

Techno bites his tongue, hands gripping the sheets. The two adults wait for a reply that he doesn’t give. After a few seconds Puffy sighs. “What happened to you should have never happened. Your parents tried to hurt you. They knew what they were doing. I haven’t called CPS yet, but pup, we are very close to doing so.” Puffy asserts.

…What?

Eret takes a step forward and takes a few breaths, his yellow eyes returning to a dark brown. “You could have died. I know you don’t know us, you don’t trust us, but I promise we just want to help you.” Eret promises.

Something about the words has Techno reeling. It wasn’t that werewolves apparently also can’t eat chocolate, it wasn’t even the fact he could have died, it was the fact that they thought his parents did it on purpose. That he was in danger, that he was poisoned by them and left for dead.

“Why did you do it?” Techno hears his dads voice in his head, his broken whispers ringing in his memory. Burned there to remind him of the man he broke. The family he teared even further into tatters. Techno had a million reasons, each scar he left behind with a blade carrying its weight. 

That night he decided to say only one of them. “Because I don’t want to feel like this anymore!” Techno still cringes at the memory, at the thought of his anger and despair being aimed at his dad. He cringes anytime Phil stares too long at his arm, or when Wilbur would hide his razor after shaving in the bathroom, like Techno was going to take the blades from them.

They were telling him that the same man who cried over top of him, pleading for a reason why Techno did it, asking if Phil himself was to blame, was the one who poisoned him. The thought alone made Techno want to throw up.

The same growl from before starts again, this time deeper, angrier. It still sounds like a puppy, but one that you’d stay away from or risk getting bitten. Techno feels his skin tighten and his breath turning shallow. His heart picks up, nails digging into the blankets. He hears a tearing sound.

“They wouldn’t do that!” Techno yells, the growling growing louder. Phil wouldn’t do that, Kristin wouldn’t do that. They’d never, in any of his lifetime, do something so cruel. Not his parents, not them. “I don’t have an allergy to chocolate! I ate it all my life! And even if I did, they would never hurt me!” Techno growls, leaning forward on his hands.

Eret raises his hands, taking a step back. “Techno it’s okay—“

“No it’s not!” Techno screams over the older man. With his hands in front of him, Techno catches sight of his veins. Something black flows through them, his nails sharpen as he watches his veins turn black moving up his arm. He should be afraid but he was too upset to let himself think for a second that this wasn’t normal.

“Nothing about this is okay! I move into the middle of nowhere and get bitten by a rabid dog, which guess what!? Isn’t actually a dog! Turns out it’s a werewolf and now I’m one too! Lucky fucking me! And now you come in here and say my dad did this to me!? That he hurt me on purpose? The only thing wrong in this room is whatever is going on inside of me!” Techno yells, voice going sore as he stares the two down. 

For a moment everything is still, Techno taking deep breaths as he sits back down on the bed's pillow. His nails return to normal along with his veins, leaving him feeling exhausted like he had just run a marathon. Puffy and Eret stand there just staring at him, the two taking in his words.

Then Puffy’s hands move up to cover her mouth, her eyes growing wide as Eret’s mouth hangs slightly open. Like they couldn’t believe anything he just said. Eret regains himself in first, clearing his throat “What do you mean by that?” Eret asks sternly, the tone causing Techno to shrink on himself.

Techno’s in a room with two monstrous beasts after having screamed like a child, and the thing that gets him is a stern tone. It’s kind of embarrassing. “I thought it was a nightmare.” Techno looks away, trying to remember that night, what had really happened.

All he remembers is pain.

“I was outside and…something bit me. It wasn’t a dog.” Techno doesn’t go further into it, isn’t ready to think of that night as something that truly happened to him, it was a nightmare, until he’s forced to see it as something else. Even while being faced with the supernatural, Techno doesn’t think it’s time to see it as anything else.

“You're a Turned.” Eret states, running a hand through his hair as he looks him over. “…Fuck.” Eret curses as he leans against the wall.

“Sorry to cause so much heartache.” Techno chuckles dryly, rubbing his arms, he could practically still feel the thing digging into his skin, reaching bone. He doesn’t know how he survived, being forever changed be damned.

Puffy shakes her head, moving to reach out, before pausing and taking a step back. “We should be sorry. For jumping to conclusions, too.” Puffy apologises as she stands, leaning against Eret. “This never should have happened, you shouldn’t have been in a position to even get bitten…”  She says.

“This must be really scary for you.” Eret frowns, crossing his arms over his chest. “And confusing, why are you even believing us?” Eret then asks, like he’s been struck by a thought. “If I was you, and I thought getting bitten was a nightmare, I wouldn’t believe us.” Eret says, looking over at Puffy. Like he still couldn’t believe it.

“Ranboo and his goons he calls friends.” Techno explains, resting his back against the wall. He feels tired, but not the bone crushing sleepiness of exhaustion, or the passing out tiredness of late night google sessions on Greek mythologies, it was the draining tiredness of laying in your bed all day, not having eaten breakfast or lunch, while thinking yourself a failure.

Techno knows this tiredness all too well, and it’s terrifying. “They said some interesting things no sane person would say.” Techno adds, because he doesn’t want to think about the other type of tiredness he’s feeling. A type of exhaustion that’s new, scary, one he has no words to explain the feeling of.

“Of course it was the pups, Tommy’s the one who came home screaming about a new pack having moved in without permission.” Puffy says, running her hands through her hair. “This just got a lot more complicated.” She huffs, looking up at him.

Techno couldn’t agree more.

~ ☾ ~

“Werewolves are real.” Techno says, sitting with his legs crossed on the bed. He ignores the claw marks on the sheets, instead he looks up at the two. Eret had gone out and gotten himself another chair, the two moving so they were sitting in front of the bed.

All three of them needed a few minutes to calm down, to think, to breathe. Techno needed it more than them so they still allowed him to say when he was ready to talk. Techno went through a couple life crisis while he was sitting there. All in all he wouldn’t recommend it.

“We’re called wolfbloods, actually.” Eret corrects softly.

“Wolfbloods?” Techno questions. That didn’t sound any better than werewolf, in his opinion.

Puffy hums. “Or the scientific term, lycanthrope. We’re not monsters, like the impression the word werewolf gives off. We’re born this way, at least most of us are.” Puffy explains, looking up at him.

“Either way you're one of us now. I know this isn’t something you wanted, but let me be the first to say that we’ll help you anyway we can.” Eret says.

“Who’s this we?” Techno questions. He’s guessing it’s a certain duo he’s met before, but he wasn’t fully sure if that was all. There had to be more to this ‘we’ then there was at first glance. He crosses his arms over his chest, being mindful of the needle still in his hand. It was starting to itch, IV’s might be the worst thing he’s had to deal with.

“Our pack. You’ve met a few already. Tommy, Tubbo, Dream and Ranboo.” Eret replies, confirming his suspicions. There were more people - or well, things - out there.

Techno thinks over the names again, head whipping up at the last one. “Ranboo’s a werewolf—or, uh… A wolfblood?” Techno asks. Ranboo seemed so normal, at least as normal as someone could be while in a crazy town like this.

Puffy shakes her head quickly, waving her hands slightly. Like she was trying to brush off the idea. “He isn’t like us, he’s a human. But he’s still family. Not by blood but by choice. Let’s just say it was an accident that he found out about us.” Puffy says, looking as if the whole thing was more than a mere accident. 

Tommy and Tubbo were wolfbloods and there was more that she wasn’t naming. Techno takes a minute to let everything sink and settle in, like a rock at the bottom of a lake. His whole life has just been flipped on his head and he doesn’t even know how to think about it. What does he do now? What should he do about it, is there a way out if this? “Is it stupid to ask if there’s a way out of this?” Techno mumbles.

Puffy sighs, looking at Eret before she turns back to him, shaking her head. “I’m sorry.” Puffy apologises. His shoulders sag, any hope for being normal again getting tossed out the window. Then again, Techno wasn’t ever really a normal guy to begin with. However this was different then just being anxious and having weird interests.

“I don’t know what to do now.” Techno admits, looking down at his hands. Like the black veins we’re going to start poking up from his skin again, like he’ll see something that’ll shock him so much he’ll keen over. Instead all that faces him is his own pale palms. “I never thought this far ahead. I thought I could just continue to convince myself that none of what happened that night was real.” He whispers the last part, though he’s pretty sure the others still hear him. Techno sounded defeated even to his own ears.

“You go home.” Puffy says. She leans to rest her hand on his knee, rubbing softly with her thumb. It grounds him somewhat, reminds him that this wasn’t a nightmare. “Your dad should be here in the morning to come see you. I’ll discharge you, explain to him that you’ve developed a rare allergy to chocolate and then you’ll lie.” Puffy explains slowly.

Eret breaths in, looking at the closed door for a second before returning his attention to him. “You can’t ever tell your family about being a wolfblood. It’s too dangerous for humans to know about us. Ranboo finding out was an accident, one we wish to avoid. Can you do that? Keep this a secret?” Eret asks, his voice stern. It didn’t sound like he was asking, more so demanding that Techno keep this secret.

A secret that was now also his to keep. “…I’ll keep it a secret.” Techno promises slowly. He bites the inside of his mouth, nervous. “But won’t they find out anyways? Full moon and all that?” Techno hadn’t really thought about it until now, as he was putting more focus and trying to understand what had happened to him. Not really thinking about the future and how he’ll have to live.

But werewolves transform during the full moon. They eat people, hurt their friends and family, they kill things. Innocent things that don’t deserve to feel the pain that the beast gives them. How does he navigate that? How will he live his life?

“We’ll have you come over to our house on the full moons. And you’ll need training to keep yourself from wolfing out in public, but I’m confident in your ability to handle yourself.” Puffy says. Which doesn’t give him much hope at all, if he’s being completely honest with himself.

Techno nods, pulling away from Puffy’s hand. “…Will it hurt?” He asks. Techno picks at his cuticles to try and get out the nervous energy. 

Puffy takes her hand back and places it into her lap. Both her and Eret look like they don’t get what he was trying to say. “Pardon?” Puffy asks, looking confused.

“Turning into… Will it hurt?” Techno emphasises the last part. He couldn’t bring himself to say it, he could hardly think about it. Every horror movie he’s ever seen with a werewolf, which wasn’t a lot, had them screaming in pain. Their bones cracked, blood spearing the walls and their skin splitting open as the monster emerged…

Techno doesn’t want that to be him.

Eret seems to understand what Techno couldn’t say. He clears his throat, looking mildly uncomfortable now as he adjusts himself in his chair. “I’m not going to lie to you and say it won’t, but it isn’t as bad as you think.” He explains. Which wasn’t comforting at all. You know what? Techno feels even more uncomfortable than before he asked his question.

Techno huffs exhausted, any ounce of energy left in him draining by the second as he thinks more about this. At any rate he’ll be passing out. “…I’m tired.” Techno says, looking up at the two. 

Puffy hums and stands, gesturing for Eret to stand as well. “Get some rest. I’ll wake you up before your dad comes to pick you up tomorrow.” She says, sending him one last smile before she heads towards the closed door.

“Before I leave, though…” Eret digs around in his pocket for a second, pulling out a slip of paper. He hands it out towards him and Techno takes it. “If you ever need me or Puffy, that’s our phone numbers.” Eret says. He then walks out of the room with Puffy, the door closing and leaving him alone.

Techno waits a few minutes before he unfolds the slip of paper. Looking down at it he finds Puffy and Eret’s name, both with numbers beside them. Then at the bottom it read ‘no more chocolate. White chocolate is fine though. It doesn’t have cocoa.’ Techno put it on the small table before returning to the bed and collapsing face first into the disinfectant smelling pillows.

“They're real.” He mumbles to himself, eyes closing shut. “I’m a wolfblood.”

Chapter Text

Techno wakes up to someone softly rubbing his arm. He opens his eyes to see Puffy crouched in front of him, smiling softly up at him. “Your father and brother are in the waiting room.” Puffy whispers, backing up from his bedside as she crosses the room.

Techno yawns, shoulders stiff from the uncomfortable hospital bed as he sits up. He looks around the room, something inside him demanding to make sure there wasn’t a threat. Wasn’t something that needed him to go running to Phil for. Then Techno yawns again, lets his previous thought linger for a second, then shakes his head as he throws that train of thought completely out the window.

“How are you feeling?” Puffy asks as she sits down on a chair in the corner of the room.

That was a hard question, one that had many different answers depending on what she actually wanted to know. Was he feeling physically fine? Yes, he felt great actually. This will probably be the most sleep he’s going to get until summer breaks. Mentally? Techno wasn’t stupid enough to wander in that direction.

“Okay.” Techno answers as he begins to pick at the loose thread in the blanket. “When can I go home?” He asks, looking back over at Puffy.

The woman looks over at him for a moment, takes a breath and then stands up. Puffy stretches her hands over her head and closes her eyes. When she opens them again, her eyes were an amber colour, her teeth sharp and her eyes the ones of a huntress.

Techno stiffens, feeling something rising in the back his throat. “Whenever I tell a nurse to fetch them.” Puffy replies, turning her full body towards him. “But before I do, I want to remind you of what we talked about yesterday.” Puffy says, her voice levelled and clam. As if she didn’t just grow fangs out of nowhere.

“I remember.” Techno grits out, shoulders hunching.

Puffy nods a second later and she looks human again. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t think that was a nightmare too. I thought it would be easier to just show you.” Puffy explains.

Honestly Techno couldn’t even be mad at her, with all the circles he’s been going around in his own mind. The thing rising in his throat dies and he nods. It wasn’t a nightmare. It would never be just a nightmare. He’s changed.

“I’ll call for them.” Puffy says before she turns and walks over to the door. She leaves the room for a moment, yet Techno could still hear here slightly through the door. She was asking a nurse to get Phil and Wilbur. Techno lets his worries drown for a moment, his cheats becoming slightly lighter at the thought of seeing his brother and dad.

Puffy walks back into the room and closes the door, walking over to his bedside. “I can remove this for you now.” She says, pointing to the needle in his arm. Techno extends his arm and Puffy softly grabs it, taking the needle out with only a pinch. She then gets out a spider man bandaid and sticks it over the small cut.

Techno makes a face as he looks down at the superhero bandaid. He then looks up at the nurse, still making a face. “Really?” He asks. Spiderman was so childish!

“I could have given you Ariel.” Puffy shrugs, trying to hide the smile on her face. Before Techno could reply a knock sounded at the door. “Come in.” Puffy quickly calls back. A nurse opens the door, her smile not reaching her tired eyes as she steps to the side.

Phil and Wilbur stood in the doorway and Techno immediately felt guilty for something that wasn’t even his fault. Both of them had bags underneath their eyes, Wilbur wearing his better than their dad. Being a high school student requires you to at least look presentable while rocking four hours of sleep.

Still Techno can't help but frown as the two walk into the room, knowing that he was the cause for both of them getting probably no sleep. Phil looks over towards Puffy while Wilbur looks over towards him, then without a second between that the older teen was crossing the room in long strides.

Techno was engulfed into a hug before he could even process what the other was going to do. After a few seconds Techno let’s his shoulders relax, raising his hands to rest them on the others back. Not quite holding, more so just leaning into his big brother. “Are you okay?” Wilbur whispers next to his ear.

“Are you?” Techno shoots back, trying his best not to gain the attention of Phil. Who was talking to Puffy, phone in hand as he quickly typed something as they went. It was hard to ignore the murmuring, his ears wanting so badly to latch onto their voices to hear what they were saying to each other. He thinks he could if he really tried.

“You scared the shit out of me.” Wilbur says instead of an answer, pulling back slightly. His glasses were a little wonky and he smelt like he forgot to put on his deodorant. Which Wilbur never forgets to do, which means something. Something that Techno caused.

Techno raises his hands and fixes his brother's glasses. “Sorry.” Techno apologises. It was his fault, his body, his curse, his life. He was bringing everyone around him down too…

“Shut the fuck up with that I’m sorry stuff.” Wilbur huffs, snapping Techno out of his thoughts. Wilbur turns, sitting down beside him on the bed. He wraps his arm around Techno’s shoulder, bringing him into a side hug. “You’ve literally eaten chocolate your whole life, you couldn’t have known you’d suddenly become allergic to it.” Wilbur says, frowning down at him.

Techno sighs, looking down at his hands. “But—“

“Do you blame me?” Wilbur cuts him off, voice stern.

“What?” Techno looks up, eyes narrowed. “Blame you for what?” He asks. Wilbur hadn’t done anything wrong. Why would Techno blame him for anything?

“I’m the one that made the chocolate pancakes, that you are seemingly now highly allergic to . So, do you blame me?” Wilbur questions, hand rubbing his shoulder up and down. Which made absolutely no sense. Wilbur didn’t know, he couldn’t have known! 

“That wasn’t your fault though. You didn’t know I was allergic to chocolate.” Techno voices his thoughts, looking up at the other.

“And you didn’t know you were either, so don’t go around saying sorry for something you can’t control.” Wilbur retorts, smiling down at him. Techno really wants to believe him, wants to forget about everything, but he couldn’t. He knew wolfbloods were real, that his pain was real, that this chocolate allergy didn’t just come out of nowhere.

Which was the problem. If Techno hadn’t gone out that night and hadn't gone into the woods, this would have never happened. So yes it was his fault, everything was Techno’s fault. The worst part was the fact he couldn’t even own up to it, couldn’t even cry to his dad and plead for him to make it better again. Because it was a secret.

“Ready to go home?” Phil says, walking over with a bag full of spare clothes. Techno looks at the bag then up at his dads tired eyes. He reaches out but instead of grabbing the clothes, he grabs onto his dad. He pulls Phil in, the other doing nothing to stop him as he buries his face into the older man’s chest.

He feels Phil’s hands wrap around his shoulders, tightening the hug. “Yes.” Techno hurries out, holding back tears. “I’m ready to go home.”

~ ☾ ~

When they got home, Techno excuses himself so he can take a shower. The smell of the hospital clung to his skin like oil and it was starting to give him a headache. He doesn’t even bother grabbing a set of clothes before he strips in the bathroom and hops into the shower.

Techno turns the water to almost boiling, letting it roll over his skin. It soothes his muscles and for a moment he can let his mind sink into its warmth. Maybe this will soon become the only way Techno could feel normal again. Ever since that night he’s been searching for confirmation that it would go back to the way it was. He won’t get that now.

Techno shakes his head, trying to chase away the depressing thoughts. Not now, he’s already been through enough. Reaching for the bottle of shampoo the sight of long healed lines caught Techno’s attention. He pauses, takes a shaky breath and then grabs the bottle.

“Why didn’t you go away?” Techno whispers, staring at the scars across his upper arm. Sometimes Techno found himself itching to get some kind of mental relief by causing physical pain. By hurting himself. He ran his fingers across the lightly rough skin, counting. Ten on his right arm, twelve on his left. It would stay like that as long as Techno can help it.

In an unhelpful way both Wilbur and Phil kind of look like they did when Techno was in the hospital after someone found out he had cut his arm on purpose. Dishevelled and worried. He doesn’t know what’s with him and hospitals but he’s starting to hate them. Techno scratches at the scars on his right arm in thought.

All those injuries he got when he was bitten went away, not even a scar to show the traumatic event. But these ones stayed. Maybe it was because he got them before he was bitten. “Would new ones heal?” Techno asks himself, needing to hear something other than the thundering in his heart. No one would know if they could. Would it actually be hurting yourself if you knew it’d heal within seconds? If it left no evidence behind.

Someone knocks on the bathroom door. “I got you a towel and a pair of clothes!” Wilbur yells from the other side of the door, sounding a little more cheerful now that they're home. Techno clutches the shampoo bottle, the cap popping slightly open. He hears the door open, Wilbur moving about the bathroom to set the things down on the side of the sink. Then he hears him turning towards the door.

If Wilbur leaves then he can look for something sharp in the bathroom. Maybe Wilbur or Phil left one of their razors behind. Since getting sent to the hospital remembering to take it to their room would be the last thing on their priority list. Techno could find it, use it and maybe even heal after.

Healing was one of the abilities he’s read that werewolves could do. Hearing, smell, strength and healing. He already has two of them, doesn’t he? Hearing and smell. It wouldn’t be self harm, only an experiment. The door was closing, Wilbur was leaving. Leaving him alone with potential razors.

“Wilbur.” Techno says, voice hushed. He was gripping the shampoo tightly now, soap squeezing and pouring down his fingers. 

Wilbur’s footsteps stop. “Yeah?” Wilbur replies quickly. Techno slowly turns, peeking his head outside the bathtub curtains. He catches his brother's eyes. A slight chill comes from the opened door but Techno ignores it.

Biting the inside of his tongue, Techno tries to think of a way to frame this that wouldn’t get Wilbur running to Phil in a panic. “I’m having…thoughts.” Techno says slowly.

Wilbur continues to look at him. “I’m going to need you to explain a bit more Techno.” Wilbur dry laughs, turning his back to the hallway.

Techno sighs. He shouldn’t be doing this. He doesn’t need help, he can fight this on his own. He’s done it for much longer than he’s confessed to. It’s bad though, really bad. Techno can picture the relief it’d give him and it’s scary.

“Don’t tell Dad.” Techno starts with, which maybe wasn’t the first thing he should be saying. Wilbur’s shoulders rise a little, something in his gaze turning. He can’t get himself to say it, the words clogged behind years of hiding it. Years before he even switched to his arms. Instead Techno sticks his arm out from behind the curtain, scars fully exposed. “I haven’t done anything yet but…”

“I’ll stay.” Wilbur speaks up, understanding dawning on him as he closes the bathroom door. Techno thinks the look Wilbur has on his face might be the third worst one he’s seen on his brother. “Hurry up and finish your shower, Dad wanted to talk to us about the whole chocolate allergy thing.” Wilbur waves him off, leaning on the sink.

Techno hums, hiding back behind the bathtub curtain as he looks down. Shampoo was practically covering the bathtub. Looking over at his hand, small sharp claws retreat from the bottle. Leaving holes where claws just were. His hand looks normal, beside the fact a second ago he could have sworn he had sharp claws.

Setting the shampoo back where he found it, Techno rubs the soap that was leaking all over his hand into his hair. Meanwhile he can hear Wilbur going through the sink cupboards, no doubt looking for any razors he may have left behind. It was very quiet, more so with water pelting at him. He could still hear it though.

After Techno is done showering he turns off the water and sticks his head out from behind the curtain. Wilbur was still leaning on the sink. “Pass the towel.” Techno asks, Wilbur quickly tossing over the towel for him. Techno goes about drying off, trying his best not to slip in the tub. That would be very embarrassing. Afterwards he chucks the towel at his brother's head, watching with laughter as Wilbur flounders for a second as he throws it off.

“Really!?” Wilbur shouts, grabbing his clothes.

“Wait—“ Techno held his hand out but it was too late. Wilbur throws his change of clothes back at him, Techno having to quickly try and grab them before they could either fall into a puddle of water or into the toilet. He gets everything but his soaks, which are now damp in a small puddle on the ground. “You're horrible.” Techno huffs, staring up at the other.

Wilbur shrugs, hiding back a grin behind his hand. “You started it. Next time don’t go throwing your used towels at me!” He replies, turning towards the door. “Now hurry up and change, Dad is probably wondering where the hell we both went.”

Techno rolls his eyes and he quickly changes, grabbing his wet towels on his way out of the shower. Before Wilbur could face him he throws them at the other, watching with delight as they hit the back of his neck. Wilbur makes a sound like a dying frog as Techno runs past him, darting down the hall.

“Come back here!” Wilbur shouts, giving chase. Techno almost trips on his way down the stairs, running right into the kitchen. Phil was on his phone by the counter, looking up as Techno runs past.

“Your hair is damp.” Phil says.

Wilbur runs into the kitchen, eyes quickly landing on him. “I hope your pillow is warm on both sides!” Wilbur yells, huffing.

Techno looks over at Phil, pointing at Wilbur. “You hear him threatening me?” Techno asks. Phil rolls his eyes as he grabs a clean kitchen towel before rushing over and draping it over his head. Techno yelps as Phil begins to dry his hair. “Dad, stop, that's gross!” Techno complains, trying to duck away.

However, Phil's spent years catching running toddlers, so quickly pushes Techno into a chair and puts his elbows on his shoulders, trapping him. “No it isn’t.” Phil says, making a mess out of his hair as he dries it. “Plus I don’t want you getting sick again.” Phil explains, pulling the towel slightly back so Techno could see.

Wilbur was standing across from them, elbows on the table. “I’m not a child, I can dry my own hair.” Techno huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Then you should have done that before leaving the bathroom.” Phil replies.

“Techno threw his wet towel and socks at me.” Wilbur whines, looking up at Phil.

“Techno don’t go throwing your used towels at your brother.” Phil sighs, tossing the kitchen towel onto the table. Phil starts running his fingers through his hair, starting from the bottle to detangle the knots. “Did you even brush your hair?”

“I may have… forgotten to do that.” Techno shrugs, relaxing into the chair. Phil scratches at his scalp, humming disapprovingly. “I blame Wilbur.”

“What did I do!?” Wilbur yells, perking up.

“Give me a minute to think of something.” Techno grins, watching as Wilbur scoffs.

“Sometimes I think you two need a mediator.” Phil mutters. His hands drift to scratching behind Techno’s ear. His bones become a puddle, his shoulders dropping as he leans into his dads touch.

“That’s why we have you.” Wilbur replies, drumming his fingers on the table. He goes to say something else but Techno can’t hear it, too focused on Phil’s hands scratching at his head softly. Phil sometimes fiddled with his hair, kind of like he was fidgeting, however he hasn’t done it in a while. Phil used to help braid Techno’s hair with Kristin, with Mom. 

Wilbur would recite his lines for whatever play he was in as Techno sat on the ground, Kristin braiding his hair after Phil brushed it. A family effort. Back then Techno’s hair was hardly up to his shoulders. He started growing it out so he could match his Mom, couldn’t wait for the day it grew long enough to do anything close to what his Mom did with her hair.

Braids, accessories, bows, clips, Techno wanted everything. He didn’t care how girly it made him look, it brought him closer to his Mom. Something only the two of them shared. After Kristin died Techno dyed his hair pink, sick to his stomach every time he looked in the mirror and saw how much he looked like her. He threw out every hair accessory he had. Techno could never bring himself to cut his hair, so he started cutting something else.

That’s also when Phil stopped actively helping him with his hair. It was their thing, not meant for Phil to do alone. The man didn’t understand how to braid hair nor did he understand how to take care of long hair. No he just stopped, left it for Techno. He never blamed Phil, it wasn’t something he’d ask the older man to do for him again. It made them think too much about the past.

Though old habits die hard. Techno would sometimes find Phil fiddling with his hair, running his fingers through as they watched a show on the TV. Techno melts into the familiar touching and could almost picture it actively brushing through his hair. It felt different this time around though, like with each downstroke of his dads fingers Techno was relaxing more and more.

Something in his mind whispers for him to sleep. This was comfort after all, let it be the thing you drift off to. Then Phil stops, Techno opening his eyes as Phil rounds the table to go onto the living room. Leaving Techno aching for more. Wilbur walks over and sits down beside him.

“I bought a couple of epipens.” Phil calls from the living room, coming back into the kitchen with a small bag in his hands. He sets the bag onto the counter and takes out five epipens, laying them out in front of them.

Techno clears his head quickly, rubbing at his eyes as he stares down at the five pens. “I think that’s a bit much.” Techno says, staring down at them with narrowed eyes. He did not want to have to have that stabbed into him. Hopefully he never would need it. “I feel like one would be enough.” He shrugs, looking over at his dad.

Phil has a look mixed between concern and sternness. The sight has Techno shutting up. Wilbur rubs his thumb into Techno’s palm, catching his attention briefly. Phil clears his throat as he sits down across from them. “This isn’t some pollen allergy that has you going into a sneezing fit. If you eat any type of chocolate you’ll go into anaphylaxis shock. Do you know how life threatening that is?” Phil says slowly, looking between the two of them.

“It could kill me.” Techno answers quietly.

Phil nods, takes a breath and then continues. “Each one of these epipens has a place. I’ll have one in the glove box in the car, one in the medicine cabinet, one will be given to a nurse at your school and you both will have one with you at all times.” Phil explains, gesturing to the pens on the table.

“If you need to use one you’ll take off the blue cap and stab the orange part, the needle, into the upper thigh and hold for ten seconds. It won’t go through thick pants or multiple layers like pockets, so keep that in mind. Then immediately call 911, the epipen isn’t a fix, it’s only to give you time to get medical help.” Phil finishes off, looking between the two.

Techno and Wilbur nod. Phil takes a deep breath, nodding as if agreeing with himself. Phil takes two and hands them each one. Techno takes it carefully, staring at it with a mix of emotions. Don’t ask him what they are, he has no clue.

“Now that’s over with.” Phil runs his hands through his hair, gathering up the rest. “I’ll order us something for lunch, you two go put those away.” Phil explains. Techno gets up as he rolls his shoulders, trying to shake off any fuzzy feeling left from when Phil was scratching softly at his scalp.

“You okay?” Wilbur asks, standing up with him.

“I’m okay.” Techno hums, walking over towards the hallway. “Thank you for staying with me while I showered.” Techno thanks quickly, darting towards the stairs before he could get a reply.

~ ☾ ~

Techno wakes up to something thudding against his window. He frowns, staring up at the ceiling with squinted eyes. Something hits his window again a few seconds later, then again a few seconds after that. Around the tenth time Techno sits up, groaning as he looks over at the window.

Moonlight was flooding the room, dust dancing in the moonbeams as if to taunt him closer. “I’m not falling for that again.” Techno calls out into the room. Last time he investigated something he got turned into a wolfblood. A small pebble hits his window then, making the same thudding sound.

Techno raises an eyebrow, staring at the window half asleep. “Fine.” Techno grits out, kicking the blankets off of himself. Slowly he creeps towards the window, only to pause when he sees two very familiar figures in his backyard. The two spot him, one of them waving at him with a pebble currently in his hand. They're not supposed to be here, his mind tells him. This isn’t their territory.

“You have to be kidding me.” Techno groans again, backing up from the window and heading towards the stairs. Techno’s light on his feet as he heads downstairs and into the kitchen on the ground floor, frowning at the locked sliding doors leading to the backyard. Beyond the doors were the two teens from school, Ranboo’s friends.

Who were currently in his backyard in the middle of the night. Techno walks over towards the sliding doors and unlocks it, the two hurrying towards the house. He opens it just enough so he can poke his head out. The two teens slow down a few steps in front of him. “Why are you here? How the hell did you even find me!?“ Techno whisper-yells, his grip tightening on the door handle.

Tommy and Tubbo look between themselves and for a second Techno swore they were trying to come up with some sort of lie. Then Tommy sighs as he kicks at a small stone in the grass. “We followed your scent.”

“You followed my what?” Techno grits out.

“Your scent. Your smell. Your stink, your…you-ness?” Tommy raises his hands and waves them in front of him, as if to point out all of him.  “It’s pretty distinctive actually. No one else smells so much like a wolfblood but also a human at the same time.” Tommy explains quickly.

Techno looks between the two, wondering if it was too late to call the cops on these two. “So you two smelled me all the way here?” Techno asks, scrunching up his nose. That was a very uncomfortable thought. 

“That and the fact we kind of looked at your medical files on Puffy’s computer when she wasn’t looking and found your address, so we kind of already had a direction to go towards.” Tubbo cuts in, sounding like he was talking about the weather.

Then what the other said hits him. “…You looked at my medical files?” Techno asks harshly, straightening his shoulders. He was taller than the both of them, more threatening. Something in his mind liked that fact.

“Not all of it! Just where it said where you lived! We weren’t snooping.” Tubbo tries to amend, taking a step back.

Tommy moves slightly in front of the other, holding up his hands playcatingly. “What my friend is trying to say is that we wanted to come talk to you.” Tommy explains, looking between them.

“Why?” Techno demands. He was tired and cranky, sue him for not being polite. 

“To say that we’re sorry.” Tommy says, lowering his hands. 

“Puffy told us that you weren’t… born like we were. That you have no clue what being a wolfblood is like, or how to act towards other wolfbloods.” Tubbo adds on, voice quieter.

Tommy nods along, taking a step forward. “Even then we were a bit out of line chasing you around the school like that. We were just concerned about why you were here with no prior warning.” Tommy explains softly, as if Techno was a wild animal wanting to run. He couldn’t help but think he hated that saying now, looking like a frightened animal.

Did Techno now count as an animal? Techno continues to just look at the two, mind running over what they had said. They were sorry, for how much he didn’t know. Sorry just for running him down, or sorry for the whole thing? Either way Techno couldn’t think of a reply. They came out here in the middle of the night, threw pebbles at his windows and apologised. What was he supposed to say to that?

“Can you please say something? You're kind of intimidating when you just stare at us like that, big man.” Tubbo speaks up, looking him up and down.

“I don’t know what to say.” Techno says honestly, looking towards the ground.

“Maybe start with accepting our apology— ow! Tubbo, why'd you do that for!?” Tommy yells, holding his arm right where Tubbo had punched him. Techno holds back a chuckle as Tubbo shoves past his friend.

“He doesn’t need to accept anything from us, Tommy. Techno’s been through enough, he’s allowed to deny our apology.” Tubbo states, hands on his hips. Tommy pouts, lifting his chin as he looks anywhere but at Tubbo.

Techno watches this for a few seconds. They were both weirdos, now having technical trespassed, who were now bickering between each other. “Can I ask you two something?” Techno says suddenly, cutting the two off.

Tubbo looks over at him, ignoring the way Tommy was now threatening to punch him back. “Dude, you can ask us anything. It’s the least we can do.” Tubbo says, batting Tommy’s hands away.

“Does any of it get any easier? The smells, the hearing, the anxiety?” Techno asks quickly. It’s been something on his mind since talking to Puffy and Eret. They seemed to know so much yet told him almost nothing. 

Tubbo goes to respond but before he could Tommy was slapping his hand over the others mouth. “I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not really sure. We were born wolfbloods, so I’ve never not had amazing hearing and a sense of smell. For the anxiety you need to be more specific.” Tommy explains. 

Techno sighs, running his hand through his hair. It gets caught by a knot near the bottom. “I don’t know, it just feels different. I’m used to anxiety, feeling anxious is my normal. But since that night…” Techno stops, pulling his fingers out and tries to work out the knock in his hair instead of looking at them. “It's as if I’m switching between normal anxiety and feeling like some random stranger is going to shank me in the middle of the night if I’m not next to my brother or dad.” Techno explains softly.

“Oh my God.” Tommy voices, causing Techno to snap his gaze upwards.

“What?” Techno asks, hair forgotten.

“You have pup instincts.” Tommy points right at him, as if Techno knew what any of that meant. “Tubbo do you hear this? Am I understanding this right?” Tommy says as he taps the other on the shoulder, mouth slightly open.

Tubbo’s own eyes were widening, looking up at Techno with a look he couldn’t only describe as confusion. “Understanding what? And what is ‘pup instincts’?” Techno questions quickly, the anxiety he was just talking about swirling low in his stomach. Please let this not be another thing he has to deal with for the rest of his life.

Tubbo clears his throat, looking away from him. “Pup instincts are just something uh, young wolfbloods have. You grow out of them when you get old enough. Wolfbloods have pup instincts between the newborn stage and…” Tubbo drifts off, looking over at Tommy.

“And?” Techno waves his hand with the ‘go on’ movement.

“…Five years old. Give or take.” Tubbo shakes his hands as he says the last bit, as if he wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Techno stares at the two in silence, trying to let what he said sink in. It’s something young wolfbloods have, young as in infant to child, as in baby’s. Techno’s eyes widen in understanding, horror dawning on him.

Tommy waves his hands in front of himself, palms facing forward. “Which is totally fine that you have them! They are perfectly healthy to have for um… a young wolfblood!” Tommy hurries out, trying to lessen the blow to Techno’s pride. It doesn’t help at all.

No way was he going to stand here after accidentally confessing that he somehow has baby wolfblood thoughts or ‘instincts’ as they said, running around in his mind. “I’m going back to my bed.” Techno states, turning to head back inside.

“No! Wait a second!” Tommy yelps, grabbing Techno by his sleeve. Techno stops, giving the other the most dangerous cut eye he could muster while also feeling like he wanted to crumble from embarrassment. Tommy laughs awkwardly as he lets go, taking a step back. “I just wanted to say, uh, we should hang out at school. You, me, Tubbo and Ranboo. So we can look out for each other. Right Tubbo?” Tommy says before kicking his foot into Tubbo’s.

“Of course. Plus if you hang around us, we could teach you things. Help you out with the transition from normal teenager to normal wolfblood teenager.” Tubbo adds quickly.

“…I’ll think about it.” Techno mumbles, no doubt his cheeks burning red from embarrassment. “Don’t make me catch you breaking into my yard again or else and going to start throwing rocks.” Techno then threatens, remembering that the two did just break into his property.

“Roger that!” Tubbo nods, putting his hand to his chest.

“We’ll definitely call in advance! Which giving us your phone number would help that?” Tommy says, a hopeful smile on his face. Techno slides the door closed and locks it in their faces, watching as Tommy and Tubbo’s hopeful smiles deflate. Then he draws the curtains shut and makes his way back up to his room.

Chapter Text

Techno was salivating at the mouth, eyes stuck on where Phil was standing, fork in hand as he cooked breakfast. The smell of bacon and eggs is heavy in the air and his stomach growls in anticipation. Wilbur snorts at the sound, currently chugging a mug of coffee. “Almost done.” Phil says as he takes the bacon off and places the strips onto a paper towel to soak up the excess grease.

The table was already set, Techno practically having rushed to do so the moment he smelt bacon cooking. Phil comes over with two large plates, one filled with eggs and the other bacon strips. He sets them down in the middle of the table before taking up his own spot. Wilbur goes for the eggs, piling them onto his plate.

Techno hardly cared about the eggs compared to the meat, so he’s fast to scoop up as much as he could without looking too greedy. He shoves one into his mouth before he even goes for the eggs, tongue watering with the taste. Once everyone’s plates are full and there halfway through breakfast Phil clears his throat.

Him and Wilbur look at the older man. Techno currently has two bacon strips hanging from his mouth and so he bites them in half, the other side falling back onto his plate. Phil sets his fork down as he looks over the two of them. “I got a commission last night.” Phil starts off with, peeking at both of the teens' interests. He was smiling and Techno found himself smiling back.

Phil used to be a top paying architect, enough money for them to live comfortably in an apartment and for Phil to have money put away for Techno and Wilbur to go to their first year of college without needing to worry about costs. Wilbur’s money was technically available to him last year when he turned eighteen, but he hasn’t even thought of touching it yet.

Also with Phil inheriting a small fortune, they were able to move with the conjoined pools of money. Phil wasn’t an architect anymore though, he shouldn't be doing commissions. “I thought you stopped doing commissions?” Techno asks.

“And I did.” Phil agrees, leaning forward on his elbows. “Do you remember when our neighbour Sam came over to say hello? Well we exchanged numbers and he’s been talking about wanting to put in a shed on his property and so I offered to draw up a plan for him. It’s a one time thing, just a favour.” Phil explains.

Something about what he said has Techno’s hair standing up. Sam was nice but he was also weird. Sam made Techno feel like the smallest thing in the world. He didn’t like that. “Who’s Sam?” Wilbur speaks up, leaning back in his chair.

“He came over when I was sick.” Techno explains, tapping his finger rhythmically on the table. “Dad now has a dad friend.” He adds, knowing when to rule the fire of teasing within his older brother. Now was that time.

Wilbur grins, whirling on their defenceless dad. “Do you two play crosswords over facetime and talk about ageing?” Wilbur asks, poking at Phil’s arm.

Phil just pokes him back. “I have you know I have friends that aren't parents.” Phil says.

“Yeah it’s because they're grandparents.” Wilbur quips back. Techno laughs, covering his mouth. 

“You’re a little shit, you know that?” Phil says, standing up to rustle Wilbur’s already messy hair. Wilbur squawks, trying to escape their dads hands. After Phil deems Wilbur’s hair messed up enough he goes back to his seat. “Anyways, I’ll be gone most of the day. Sam also wants me to help him with home renovations, so I don’t know when I’ll be done to pick you guys up. I’ll give you two some money to take a bus back home after school, okay?”

Techno was about to object, because why was Phil spending so much time over at someone’s house? Without Wilbur or him coming along? Techno ignores the fact Phil likes to take his time, talk to the client and the fact Sam and Phil seem to actually be becoming dad friends. Phil shouldn’t be out of the house that long, nevertheless past school hours.

Wilbur replies before he could think of what to say. “That’s okay with us, right, Techno?” Wilbur looks over to him, something in his eyes demanding that Techno agrees. There was something here he was missing.

“It’s fine if you want me to pick you up.” Phil says, the comment aimed at him. Techno looks over at their dad, wants to be selfish, to demand that he doesn’t take so long. Then Techno sees the hopeful look in his dads eyes. It was almost childlike nervousness. Phil really wanted to do this.

Now that he’s thinking about it, Techno never saw Phil have any real friends. After Kristin died Phil refused to go out drinking with other adults, stopped hanging around places a couple hours after work finished, stopped being human. Phil always reminded them that he was their dad, they were his responsibility, that he loved them and it came with him needing to be selfless. To give up having a social life.

Techno felt sick to his stomach over his own selfish thoughts. “Nah, go do boring adult things with your new friend.” Techno waves him off as he slides a mask of nonchalant over his face. When did he become so selfish? He never used to be like this. “Be back before twelve.” Techno jokes dryly, looking away from Phil. Phil laughs, the sound vibrating in Techno’s head.

On the way to the car after breakfast Wilbur taps him on the shoulder. Techno looks over, confused. “What?” He asks, pausing in his steps.

“Thanks for not putting up a fight with Dad.” Wilbur says while he pats him on the shoulder. “I don’t think I remember the last time he took up commissions, he must really like this Sam guy.” With that Wilbur hurries after Phil to get into the passenger seat. Techno drags his feet along the gravel as he makes his way into the backseat.

~ ☾ ~

“Remember to give the nurse one of your epipens.” Phil says as he leans out the driver's seat window. 

They were early for school for once, with time on their hands to chat to Phil before heading inside to wait on the bell. Wilbur had already slung his headphones around Techno’s neck, just shrugging when Techno gave him a confused look. He knew why he did it, he just didn’t know why Wilbur kept doing it. Big brothers were an enigma.

“I will.” Techno replies, hands holding the straps of his backpack as he taps them. He was anxious to go back to school. It seems like every time he did something happened.

Phil smiles as he leans back into the car, waving at them. “Have fun!” Techno and Wilbur say their goodbyes as Phil pulls out from the roundabout, leaving them for the day.

“You want me to stick around?” Wilbur asks, turning as they head towards the school.

“Nah I’m good.” Techno says as he shakes his head. “Go do whatever you do before school, Beast.” He waves the other off.

“See you at lunch, Beauty.” Wilbur replies, waving as he heads over towards a group of kids a bit away. They looked outgoing, dramatic. They were definitely theatre kids. Techno turns his attention back towards the school, walking up the steps and past the doors. He still didn’t have a locker and wasn’t about to ask for one, so instead he headed to his first class of the day.

Techno lifts the headphones over his ears as he walks, trying his hardest to not focus on the other students chatting with their friends in the hall. It was weird, the headphones didn’t muffle much. They just made it so everything wasn’t too much. He turns down the last hall before his class, looking up so he can spot the room number.

He doesn’t spot the room number, instead he spots three teens in the hallway. Techno stops in his steps just in time for all three of them to look in his direction. Ranboo, Tubbo and Tommy were looking at him, he’s also pretty sure the latter don’t have classes in this hall.

This was an ambush. Techno spins on his heels to go wait out the hour before class somewhere else. “Hey wait!” Tommy yells, three sets of footsteps hurrying over. Techno sighs as he slows to a stop, the three catching up to him.

“Techno, how are you feeling?” Ranboo asks immediately, stopping right beside him. Honestly Ranboo’s the only person he trusts to not be a complete weirdo.

“Better.” Techno replies, looking around at the now small group. “What do you two want?” Probably to bother him more than they’ve done already. Techno just really wanted today to be normal. He can never have nice things.

“Wow, you sound moody.” Tubbo states, taking a step back. “Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” He asks jokingly. No it was more like Techno woke up, got told that Phil wasn’t going to be here when school was done and was left to defend for himself alone. No, not defend. He doesn’t need defending like some child. Though the thought of Phil not being somewhere he knows where to get to easily was starting to bug him a little bit.

“I think he’s allowed to feel moody.” Ranboo pipes in, looking everywhere but at any of them. “He’s had a rough few days.”

“And he has pup instincts, remember? Being here on his own doesn’t exactly scream comfort.” Tommy whispers.

“Pup what now?” Ranboo asks, looking over at Techno with confusion. Techno shrugs, not wanting to explain the very hypothetical situation with these instincts at the moment.

“I’m not alone.” Techno huffs, wanting them to stop talking like he wasn’t even here. He could hear them, they must know that. All three of them still and Techno sighs. “You guys do know I have an older brother that goes here, right?” He asks, looking over at Ranboo. 

Ranboo shakes his head. “I had no idea.” Ranboo says, eyes slightly wide. “You never told me.”

Techno was about to say something sarcastic but then he remembers that this is technically his third day of class. It’s already been a week and this was only his third day. The first day was filled with running away from wolfbloods and the second when he got sent to the hospital. He's known Ranboo for only two days. “Well uh…I have an older brother.” He replies.

The memory of last night has Techno turning his attention towards Tommy and Tubbo, a thought popping in his mind.  “Do you not like… Smell him on me or something?” He asks the second part quieter, hardly above a whisper.

Tubbo and Tommy both sniff the air then, the two shrugging. “It’s hard to smell the difference in family members. Family all kind of blends together to one scent.” Tommy explains, pointing between him and Ranboo. “I can tell you two apart easily and I can tell that Techno lives with a human. I can’t tell how many people Techno lives with just by smelling his scent though. If I smelled your brother I’d know he was part of your household, but I’ve not met him yet.” 

That made a bit of sense but also made more questions form. What did humans smell like? He knew wolfbloods smelt like musty wet dogs, but people didn’t really have a scent to him. “Huh…” Techno hums, nodding. That would be a question for another day. “Good talk, I better get going.” Techno turns to walk down the hall to wonder before class.

Both Tommy and Tubbo run around him and block his path. “Aw come on man, you can’t just run away from us.” Tommy blurts, a hesitant look on his face.

Techno grips his backpack straps harder. “I can actually.” He deadpans. The two were blocking his way. They outnumbered him, three to one. Because no matter how much Techno knew that Ranboo was nice to him, that didn’t beat the history these three shared. Ranboo was their friend, not his. Ranboo knew about their secret, their second lives. Techno only found out because he was bitten.

If they wanted they could hurt him, three to one, and he couldn’t do anything about it. What classes did Wilbur have now? How far was he? Was he even near his class or with his new friends?

“You can at least stay in the hall, you don’t have to talk to us. You don’t need to just leave.” Tubbo sighs. The shorter boy looks up at him, eyes pleading. Techno looks away, biting the inside of his cheek.

Then he feels Ranboo take a step away from him, coming slightly into view. “Do we make you uncomfortable?” Ranboo asks, voice quiet and resigned. Something stabs into his heart, Ranboo’s words squeezing it. He sounds wounded.

Techno snaps his head towards the other. That’s not what he wanted to do at all! Ranboo was nice, he didn’t deserve to sound so hurt. “What? No it’s just…” He couldn’t finish his thought. He could taste blood, his teeth having bitten too hard on the inside of his cheek. The pain grounds him for a moment.

He shouldn’t be scared, why was he scared? Techno’s never been scared to be around people before, at least not like this. He wants Phil and Wilbur. Something in his mind agrees. Techno bites harder on his inner cheek.

“Techno?” Ranboo questions, tapping his shoulder.

The touch shocks him out of his mind and he whines. It wasn’t a human sounding whine either. It was a loud puppy like whine, high pitched and needy. Then the realisation of what he just did slams into him and he slams his hand over his mouth. His face heats up as he looks between the others.

They were all looking at him weirdly. His shoulders start to shake, the need to run away biting at his mind. But he couldn’t get his legs to move. He was stuck and he was outnumbered and he needed his dad—

Tommy and Tubbo were sitting on the floor. The anxious alarm bells go silent and he’s left staring at the two. “Better?” Tubbo asks, sliding further down onto the ground until he is fully laying on it.

“What?” Techno asks breathlessly, his shoulders slumping, all tension gone.

“Do you feel better? Your instincts, they were scared of us weren’t they?” Tubbo explains.

It takes a moment for his head to clear, leaving him confused and very much embarrassed. “I think—I think I need to sit down.” Techno says. His throat was scratchy now, it was uncomfortable to talk. He shrugs his bag off his back and lets it fall to the ground as he walks to the wall and slides down it with his back to it. “That wasn’t…me.”

“That was your instincts, which is a part of you.” Tommy says as he slides over beside him. Ranboo grabs his bag for him and sits next to him too, leaving Tubbo laying on the gross hallway floor in front of them.

“I’m so confused.” Techno sighs as he pulls his knees up and sets his forehead on them. “This is all so confusing.”

“I understand the feeling. A bit at least.” Ranboo replies, sounding like the very thought of knowing what Techno’s going through out a weight on his shoulders. “When I found out about all of this I had a nervous breakdown.” He explains.

Techno peaks up from his knees. “How many other people have you two terrified?” He asks. Was this some kind of ritual for them? Some unfortunate soul finds out about this wolfblood secret and they go completely off the deep end? Because that’s how this was starting to feel like.

“It’s not our fault!” Tommy yells. Only to get shushed by both Tubbo and Ranboo. The other teen huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “Moving on, it’s okay to be confused. We’ll help you.” Tommy barrels on as he nudges Techno’s side.

“We’ll take this one step at a time.” Tubbo finally gets up off of the dirty floor, smirking over at them. “And I have the perfect way to start.” The smirk on Tubbo’s face twists into something evil, the other boy pointing to each and every one of them. “We’re taking you to the woods.”

Tommy gasps, jumping to his feet as he claps his hands together. “That’s a great fucking idea.” Tommy grins, his smirk mirroring Tubbo’s.

Ranboo sighs from beside him. “I hope you don’t have to go anywhere after school.” Ranboo says, looking like he already knew something about these ‘woods’ that Techno didn’t. He most likely did, given the fact he lives here.

“Why are we going to the woods?” Techno asks, giving up on fighting this. Maybe he could sue them for manipulation. Stalking his house and then waiting outside his classroom feels like something that would be illegal.

“To show you the first step of being like us.” Tubbo’s answers easily, like being a wolfblood automatically meant needing to be in the woods. Maybe it did, he has no idea.

“Awesome.” Techno sighs, pushing himself up onto his feet. “Now I’ll have to lie to my brother again.”

“Great then it’s all set!” Tommy yells as he grabs Tubbo by the arm, shaking him. “We’re going to the woods after school.”

“If it means anything, they did the same thing to me.” Ranboo nudges his side, smiling over at him softly. “It gets better when you give up and let them do what they want.”

“Do I need to call the cops on them?” Techno stage-whispers, His words pointed at Ranboo.

Ranboo chuckles as both Tubbo and Tommy start yelling about what he’s said. “No it’s fine, it sounds worse than it is.” Ranboo replies, shaking his head. Techno nods, because he’s starting to believe it himself. They didn’t immediately rip out his throat, or chase him around the school, or overall didn’t make him have a panic attack.

He’s starting to get good at this ‘go with the flow’ thing.

Chapter Text

It’s sickeningly easy to come up with a lie to tell Wilbur why he isn’t taking the bus home with him. Techno comes up with it during Math class between writing out equations and trying to figure out the circumference of a made up baseball field. The baseball field question was harder than the idea of lying to his brother.

Either way Techn was walking down the hall to meet his brother for lunch, his lie practised on his tongue. As if this was some kind of test. He lies to himself and says it’ll be easy. Lying has been recently, but something about this feels wrong. Different. Techno wasn’t lying about having a panic attack or feeling sick. He was lying about the fact he’s a werewolf. A deadly, skilled killer. Even if the only thing he’s ever killed were flys with a fly swatter and the occasional unlucky snail.

He takes a deep breath and turns the corner, expecting to see Wilbur waiting by the stairs they’ve claimed as their own. Instead of his brother he sees an empty stairwell. “Wilbur?” Techno calls, the hair on the back of his neck standing on edge. He wasn’t here. Wilbur didn’t show up. Did something happen to him? Techno’s breath starts to pick up, wondering where the other could have gone.

He could have gotten held back by a teacher, got caught up in a conversation, forgotten where the staircase was. There were plenty of reasons for Wilbur to not be here. But then wouldn’t Techno have gotten a text? Techno turns, reaching to grab his phone to call Wilbur. 

“Boo!” Wilbur shouts, raising his hands.

Techno yelps, hands moving faster than his mind as he punches Wilbur in the stomach. “Will!” Techno huffs.

Wilbur clutches at his stomach, slowly falling to his knees. “Jumpy much?” Wilbur groans, looking up at him. “I’m never jumping you again.” He states, rubbing at his stomach.

“Sorry.” Techno apologises, frowning. “You deserved it though.” He adds, the influx of his anxiety dying down to a low simmer.

“Debatable.” Wilbur huffs, getting back to his feet. “When did you get so strong?” Wilbur comments, making his way over to the staircase.

“Heh?” Techno voices, following after the other. “What do you mean?” He asks, sitting down at the third step.

Wilbur sits on the fourth step, placing his bag down between his legs. “Oh come on, are you secretly getting buff or something without me? That punch hurt. Your fist was like a fucking brick.” Wilbur replies as he grabs at his hand. He feels around, then moves down. Techno doesn’t understand what he’s doing until Wilbur pokes at his bicep.

Wilbur loves to poke and prod, it’s the unlucky fortune Techno was born into. Hugs, rough housing, Wilbur did it all. It wasn’t the first time he’s snuck up on him, won’t be the last. But when Wilbur pokes at his arm it feels different. Techno bats his hand away before experimentally poking his own upper arm. What he felt wasn’t skin over bone, it was muscle. It wasn’t much but it was noticeable. Techno blinks, then pokes again. “…Well that’s new.” Techno whispers.

“You have to give me whatever exercise routine you're doing.” Wilbur says as he takes out his lunch. “Can’t have my baby brother be stronger than me, that’s just embarrassing.” He adds, taking a bite out of his sandwich. Techno hums, getting out his own sandwich. Ham and cheese. He takes a bite, trying his best to savour the meat. It ends up being devoured without any more thought.

They eat in relative silence, Techno sparing glances up and down the stairwell every few minutes. After he finishes his food Techno clears his throat, garnering his brother's attention. “Yeah?” Wilbur asks, turning to face him.

“I uh,” Techno pauses, shifting in his spot. No time to lie like the present. “I’m not taking the bus home right after school.” Techno says, tossing his food bag into his backpack.

“We can’t just buy an Uber, Tech.” Wilbur replies, misunderstanding him.

Techno shakes his head, looking up at the other. “I’m not going home right away. I have plans.” He says, biting the inside of his cheek.

Wilbur raises an eyebrow as he shifts to sit forward. “What kind of plans can you possibly have after school? You’ve barely been here a week.” Wilbur replies.

“Well…” Techno tries to spit it out, but his tongue becomes heavy in his mouth. It was an easy lie. He’s lied about worse things. Yet the idea of lying because of the thing he’s hiding, his new dark secret, has him clamping up. Wilbur waits patiently, eyeing him suspiciously. After a bit too long of silence Techno musters up the courage to just spit the words out. “I made some friends. They invited me to some arcade.” He lies.

Wilbur doesn’t say anything for a while, eyes growing wide as he just stares at him. Techno frowns, shifting uneasily in his seat. “…Did I break you or?”

“Of course you can go to the arcade.” Wilbur cuts him off, a smile spreading across the other teens face as he slaps his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me you were making friends? Tech, this is amazing!” Wilbur praises, looking like the sun itself had gained a rival.

“You never asked.” Techno shrugs, ignoring the scoff Wilbur does as he stands. “Anyways, I’ll probably be dragged off by them right after final period. So I might not see you.” Techno adds, trying and failing to ignore the glee coming from Wilbur.

“Are you kidding me? I’m meeting your friends before you leave. I need to see who’s got you being social.” Wilbur smiles, packing up his garbage as he walks down the steps. “Meet me at the front of the school before you leave, okay?”

Techno hums, then the realisation of what he’s just agreed to starts to sink in. He splutters, looking over at Wilbur. “You don’t need to meet them.” Techno states, shaking his head.

Wilbur slings his backpack over his shoulder, shrugging. “Yes I do, it’s my job as your older brother to immediately embarrass you in front of them.” Wilbur says, patting him on the shoulder. “Seriously though, I’m happy you're making friends. After…everything, I’m glad you're talking to people. Like, outside of school assignments that is.” Wilbur adds, his voice turning serious for a moment.

Techno couldn’t even fight against it, his shoulders slump and he nods. “Well I was kinda getting bored only bothering you, so…” Techno shrugs, looking away from the other. “Friends seemed like a fix.” He tries to seem disinterested, knowing how the other is like. It’s hard to ignore the smile that's turned his way as the two walk back down the hall.

Students were making their way back to their classes, chatting between each other without a care in the world. Before they moved, Techno wasn’t necessarily a loner. He chose to ignore other people’s advances when it came to friendship. It was easier that way, he supposed. He chose to not have friends, to not let people get close enough to see how damaged he was.

It was hard to do that with Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo. They literally chased him down, there wasn’t much he could do. “I’ll see you after school then.” Techno says, gesturing down the hall. “I’m off to science class.”

“Have fun.” Wilbur waves, turning to go the opposite direction. Once Wilbur is out of view Techno turns to make his way to his next class. He places his brother's headphones over his ears, pressing down on them with his hands as he prepares for the drilling ring of the school bell. 

He gets to class before any of the other students, taking up the same seat he did last time by the window. The teacher wasn’t even here yet. Taking out a notebook and a pencil, Techno waits for the bell signalling the students to start running to their next class. In the meantime he sets his head in his arms, eyes closing shut.

Just two more classes and then he’s getting kidnapped by a bunch of werewolves. His life is turning into one of those cringy vampire romantic novels. Except without the bloodsuckers and more dog energy. He lets his mind drift a bit, not knowing what else to do with his time. The door opens and closes and for a second he thinks it’s the teacher.

That is until the smell hits him. Techno’s eyes fling open and he pushes himself to his feet, chair screeching back as his heart starts to race. The guy who shoved him against the wall his first day here had his hands up, mouth hanging open slightly. “Hey—“

“You're one of them.” Techno blurts, taking a step back. His heart thuds against his ribcage, mind digging up the still very fresh memory of his last interaction with the other.

“I am.” The guy replies, hands still held up in the air. He looks around the room quickly before settling back onto him. “I want to say I’m sorry.” He sighs, shoulders slumping. “My dad told me what’s going on—“

“I don’t accept it.” Techno cuts him off, nose scrunching up. The fear from before was clawing at his brain, urging him to make a run for it. The door was blocked. How hard was it to break a school window? They were on the ground floor, surely it wouldn’t be that bad?

The guy frowns. “What?” He asks.

Techno just takes another step back, eyes narrowed on the other. He wants Phil, which was a very childish thought he didn’t really want to focus too much on. “I’m not accepting your stupid apology.” Techno bites, feeling brave. Maybe it was because Techno wasn’t out numbers, or maybe it was because he simply had a death with. Either way his mouth was moving faster than his head.

He didn’t like this guy, whoever he is. Techno didn’t care if he was a werewolf, wolfblood, whatever. At least the others didn’t hurt him the first time they met. This guy was a whole different ordeal.

The guy scowls, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m just trying to be the bigger person!” The guy yells.

Techno flinches back, his shin knocking into the chair as he goes tumbling to the ground. He yelps in pain as his head hits the seat of the chair, utterly inhuman. He huffs, rubbing the back of his head. The sound of hurried footsteps drew near, the guy rounding the desk. Techno looks up, freezing at the sight of golden-like yellow eyes.

“Fuck, I didn’t mean to scare you.” The guy growls, which makes Techno flinch back harder. The guy's eyes widen in shock but the damage is done. Techno’s mind explodes and it wasn’t the normal anxiety he’s used to. It felt even more overbearing, like this morning. Suddenly he doesn’t think he could beat this guy if he needed to. He felt small, too small, small enough that he shouldn’t be alone.

The guy takes a sharp step back, raising his hands. “Hey it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you…again. Shit I’m bad at this.” The guy huffs, taking even more steps back until his back was against the other wall.

With the gap between them Techno finally takes a deep shuddering breath. Then he takes a few more, calming his heart rate. “You suck at apologising.” Techno grits out, slowly standing to his feet. He hugs himself, arms gripping onto his elbows as he kicks his chair towards the desk. “Just-Just stay away from me. I’ll call the cops, you know, I know their number. I’ll say you're harassing me.” Techno says, no heat behind his words.

The guy sighs, running his hand through his hair. “I…Okay.” He replies, taking the seat furthest away from Techno. “My name is Dream by the way.”

“Never asked.” Techno snips back, forcing his head to face forward. “…It’s Techno.”

“Never asked.” Dream says, leaning back in his chair.

True to his word, Dream doesn’t bother him for the rest of the class. Techno does feel his eyes on him sometimes, but it doesn't feel like a predator hunting its prey. It feels concerned, apologetic. It feels like a man who’s standing out in the rain with no umbrella and no cash on him. A wet dog, he thinks, would be a great description. When the class does end, Techno's racing out the door.

~ ☾ ~

Ranboo plays the mediator during history class. Techno isn’t early for this class, moving with the crowd. So when he enters the class and sees Tubbo, Tommy and Ranboo where they were last time it isn’t a surprise when they gesture for him to come over and take the fourth seat at the table.

Techno’s weak, giving in as he sits next to Ranboo. Who for the most part seems happy he’s here, smiling over at him. He doesn’t know if that’s because of him, or the fact the three obviously brought another chair over. There’s three in each section, going up towards the front. This line of desks has four.

He’s pretty sure they're setting him up.

“How was your other classes?” Ranboo says. He was picking slightly at his nails, black nail polish flaking off.

“Fine.” Techno responds, looking over at the other two. They were staring. “What now?” He asks, already exhausted.

Tommy smiles, leaning back in his chair. “You sat with us.” He says. Techno raises an eyebrow. “Willingly.” He adds. Tubbo shares the goofy grin as Ranboo rolls his eyes.

“And I can willingly leave.” Techno states, pretending to get up.

Tommy springs to his feet, arms outstretched. “Come on man, I was just teasing.” He says quickly. Techno snorts, sitting back down in his seat.

“Alright class, settle down!” Mr Thatcher says as he walks in. He rests against the desk as kids shush each other, the classroom falling into silence. The man sighs, looking over the class. He spots Techno fairly easily, looking confused at the new desk added to the row before moving on. “There’s a field trip coming up next month that I’ve set up for you and my other class. We’re going to a historical village called Starboard for the whole day. I’ll hand out the permission slips, I expect them back by the end of the week. Like with every field trip, any parents who want to can volunteer to watch you hell bringers during the trip.” Mr Thatcher ends off with, picking up a stack of papers as he begins to hand them out.

“Volunteers?” Techno questions, looking towards Ranboo.

“It’s for parents who want to be involved with school field trips.” Ranboo answers, pointing to Tommy. “Tommy’s dad always volunteers for trips outside of town. You can ask your dad if he wants to come along, if he doesn’t have work.” Ranboo adds.

Techno thinks about it, shelving the idea to think about later. Phil would most definitely want to come if he’s given the chance, it’s more so if Techno wants him there. The memory of this morning flashes in his mind, of Phil looking so happy to be doing something that didn’t have to be centred around him for Wilbur. Would Phil feel like he needed to come? That he didn’t have a choice?

…But if there’s other parents coming, maybe Phil could make some more adult friends? Dad and mom friends who are old like him.

”I’ll think about it.” Techno says as Mr Thatcher walks up to the four of them. He sets down four copies of the permission form.

“If you two decide to come, I'll need the nurse to give me your guy’s epipens.” Mr Thatcher states, looking over at Tommy and Tubbo.

“Techno too, Mr Thatcher.” Tubbo says, pointing to him. “Didn’t you hear? Chocolate allergies are catching on, it’s contagious.” Tubbo grins.

Mr Thatcher sighs, turning his attention to him. “Is this true?” He asks.

Techno nods, trying not to feel like he was causing the other even more headache. “Sorry?” He tries, shrinking in his seat.

“Can’t help allergies, kid. Just make sure you tell the nurse to give me yours as well.” Mr Thatcher says, moving on. 

“So we’re all going, right?” Tommy asks, grabbing Tubbo’s and his slips. “To this village?”

“If it’s free.” Techno says, looking down at the slip. He can’t help but feel like the name of the village was familiar somehow…

“Isn’t our book for English based on the village?” Ranboo asks, looking down at his own slip. ”The History of Starboard Lake.” He points out.

Now that he thinks about it, Techno’s pretty sure it was. “Could be good for our book report.” He says as he shoves the permission slip into his bag.

“Alright class, now for today’s lesson.” Mr Thatcher announces once he’s done handing out the slips. The classroom groans all at once, settling in for the next hour.

~ ☾ ~

“Why are we just standing here?” Tommy speaks up from his position leaning on the wall.

“My brother wanted to meet you guys before we leave.” Techno replies, tapping away at his phone. “I tried to get out of it but he was adamant.” 

“Wait, we’re meeting your brother?” Ranboo voices, shrinking in on himself.

“If you guys don’t want to, you don’t have to.” Techno says, looking over at the taller teen. Ranboo was playing with a ring on his finger, twirling it anxiously.

“I want to!” Tommy interjects, grabbing Ranboo by the shoulders. “Boo here just hates meeting family members.”

“What if I say something wrong and your brother hates me forever?” Ranboo asks, groaning.

Techno looks between Ranboo and the newcomer walking over to them. “I’m sure Wilbur will like you.” He speaks up. The newcomer slows down and Techno smiles.

“You don’t know that. Most people don’t like the whole,” Ranboo gestures to his outfit. Ripped jeans with a pocket chain and a black long sleeved shirt, coupled with a nose piercing. “Alt look, you know?” He says, biting his bottom lip.

“I think the alt look is cool.” The newcomer - his brother - voices from behind Tommy and Ranboo. Ranboo yelps, turning to face Wilbur. Wilbur raises his hand in a short wave, smiling at all of them. Techno has to stifle a laugh at the betrayed look Ranboo shoots his way.

“So you three are Techno’s new friends?” Wilbur asks as he walks over, leaning on him.

“Yep.” Tubbo replies, looking his brother up and down. “We’ve heard absolutely nothing about you.” He adds.

“We literally just met.” Techno deadpans.

“Anyways, I hope you don’t mind us stealing him for the rest of the afternoon.” Tommy says, dragging Ranboo towards the front doors. They start to move as a unit out the doors, heading towards the street crossing.

“As long as he gets home before our dad does. I’m not getting in trouble for this one escaping curfew.” Wilbur says as he gives Techno a pointed look. He understood it easily. Don’t let Dad find out what you're doing.

“We’ll have him home at a reasonable time.” Tubbo states.

“You make it sound like we’re going on a date.” Ranboo grimaces. “We’re going to an arcade.”

Wilbur looks between them then towards the bus stop a street down. “Well this is where I split off. Nice to meet you three.” Wilbur waves, giving them all one last look before splitting off from them.

“I think that went well.” Tommy says.

“He’s totally suspicious.” Techno sighs, pushing his hair out of his face. “So, where are we going anyway?” He asks, turning towards the group. Tubbo and Tommy give each other a look, evil flashing in their eyes.

~ ☾ ~

A bus to the outskirts of town and a walk through the woods later, Techno finds himself in the middle of nowhere. Tommy and Tubbo were in front of him and Ranboo, hopping over tree branches with ease. Techno’s almost tripped about three times already.

“If one more root tries to trip me, so help me God.” Techno grumbles.

Ranboo looks at him with sympathy, his own steps shaky on the uneaten terrain. “You get used to it.” Ranboo says, patting his shoulder. “After like…The tenth time tripping.”

“Great.” Techno groans, eyes casted downwards as he steps over a curvy tree root. “Is it just me or does this feel like some kind of murder set up?” He asks. Maybe he needs to stop watching murder mysteries at night. Even so, it’s not everyday your new wolf blood friends drag you off into the middle of the woods. 

“I think this is where they like to bury the bodies.” Ranboo whispers. Techno snorts, smiling over at the other. It was weird, the way Ranboo could make him forget all about the walls he’s built. He wasn’t popular, having a small friend group that we’re literally the weirdest people Techno’s ever met. Yet for some reason he felt seen when he talked to Ranboo. Like he understood him, not as a monster but as a human.

“Am I going to be one of them?” Techno asks as they continue to follow the other two. They keep glancing over at them, as if Techno was going to run for it. He’s too exhausted to even think about being chased down in the woods. If they want to kill him and bury him somewhere out here he’ll gladly let them.

Ranboo shakes his head, bumping him with his shoulder. “If they try I’ll kick them in the shins.” Ranboo grins. It gives Techno the impression he’s done it before.

“We’re here!” Tommy announces, turning on his heels. He claps his hands together as he does so, looking between Ranboo and him. Tubbo’s rummaging through his backpack as Techno and Ranboo slow to a stop in front of them.

The woods look the exact same as when they entered it. Trees rising high into the sky with dirt underfoot. What's so special about this part? “What are we doing here?” Techno finally asks. They said that they were going to show him how to be like them but he doesn’t understand where the woods are in all of this. Did they want him to roll over like a dog and sniff random bushes?

“We’re going for a run.” Tubbo answers him, tossing Ranboo a few bottles of water from his backpack.

“A run.” Techno deadpans, looking around. There were no trails this far out. He’s more likely to fall in a creek than to find a running trail. “I don’t run.” He adds. The last time he’s been made to run was at his old school for gym class. He wasn’t in the back with the kids who were speed walking but he wasn’t at the front with the future athletes either. Techno found himself tasting blood in his throat and heaving more times than not.

“Well you're going to run today.” Tommy says as he stretches his arms above his head. “But not like a human.”

Techno scrunches his nose. “I’m not going to run on all fours—“

“Not like that!” Tubbo laughs, zipping up his bag. “How do I explain this?” Tubbo looks around, pointing at a squirrel up in one of the trees. Techno didn’t even know it was up there. “Most people don’t notice things in the woods. The animals, foot prints, the way the wind blows. But wolf bloods do. Nature is just an extended version of ourselves. Running like a wolf blood is letting yourself go, letting yourself be one with nature itself.” Tubbo explains.

“It’s fucking amazing, is what it is.” Tommy adds, looking around. “You can push yourself further than you’ve ever had before.”

One with nature? Techno’s never been one with nature before. He was raised in the concrete jungle. His nature was the park benches and slides he climbed around as a child. His lungs were filled with smog and the stench of garbage trucks coming down the streets. Fresh air was a thing of dreams.

“So how do I ‘become one with nature’.” Techno asks. He’s going to make a fool of himself; he already knows it.

“Take in your surroundings,” Tubbo starts, inching away. “Feel the way the wind moves around you, the way the animals run in the underbrush. Smell the fresh air, the sap from the trees. Feel the dirt and stones underneath your feet. Pretend for a second that you're just an extension of the trees.” Tubbo explains, as he grins and starts running. “Come on!” 

Before Techno could reply Tommy’s taking off too, running after Tubbo. Techno’s left standing next to Ranboo, who’s struggling to hold the three water bottles in his arms. “They're horrible teachers.” Techno sighs. Looking down he makes sure his shoelaces are tied. “I guess I’m doing this.”

“It’ll be fun.” Ranboo smiles, begging to jog after them.

Techno watches him go, hand reaching up to brush the hair out of his face. So he’s just supposed to feel the things around him? He guesses it’s just like grounding techniques. Looking around, Techno watches the trees sway in the soft breeze. He digs his feet into the ground, bending his knees slightly. Before he could convince himself that this was a horrible idea he starts running after the others.

He catches up to Ranboo easily, lapping him in less than a minute as he runs off. It wasn’t a surprise, Ranboo didn’t seem like a runner. Tommy and Tubbo were further up, way out of reach. His heart starts to race, lungs aching as he starts to breathe heavily. His throat burns, reminding him why he never liked running. Techno slows, coughing up a lung as he leans against a tree. Ranboo was further behind him, out of view.

“This is pointless.” Techno breaths, catching his breath. He holds his chest with the palm of his hand, feeling his heart thunder against his ribs. He doesn’t understand what ‘being a wolf blood’ was all about. If it was being fast and running for miles in the woods, he’s not cut out for it. “Okay Techno, you're not a quitter.” He says aloud, looking off in the direction his friends went.

The wind picks up, ruffling his hair. With it the scent of wet dog is carried, leaves flying past his shoes. Techno takes a deep breath through his nose this time, closing his eyes. He tries to imagine what Tommy and Tubbo told him too. He tries to focus on the trees, dirt and wind around him. He lets his shoulders sag.

There’s a bird somewhere, the sound of tweeting being carried across the wind. Leaves crunch somewhere to his left, another squirrel maybe. The bark of the tree he’s leaning on is rough, textured. Unlike the smooth fake stones of the buildings he’s so used to. Pushing off of the tree he opens his eyes and starts running.

Instead of focusing on catching up to Tommy and Tubbo, Techno just runs. He lets the wind fling his hair around however it likes. Eyes set forward, he listens to the animals around him. To the bugs buzzing around in the afternoon sun. Greenery passes by in blurs. His muscles start to ache, legs begging him to stop. Instead Techno sniffs the air. Tommy and Tubbo were closer now. He doesn’t know how he knows but he does. His heart is loud in his head, demanding his attention. He doesn’t give it.

He spots Tommy and Tubbo up ahead, they were both leaning on a tree talking to each other. They didn’t seem to be out of breath. Were they waiting for him? They notice him quickly after, eyes widening as he passes them. “I thought we were running?” Techno calls after them, not even looking back as he continues running forward. He hears them scramble to follow him and something deep within him preens at the thought of outrunning the two.

He loses them, legs moving faster and faster. His muscles stopped aching a long time ago, leaving behind a numb body. As the wind whips past Techno’s hair, his throat void of human speech and his lungs devoid of any air, he thinks that maybe this was worth every bite wound that crossed his body. His feet moving faster than his mind, Techno could only laugh in the face of the world.

He felt untouchable. Burning lines run down from his chest, running down his limbs and rising up his neck. His lungs screaming for a breath he wouldn’t allow, not if it would stop this feeling of euphoria.

His foot hooks a tree root and Techno goes flying to the ground, hands extended in front of him as he goes tumbling. He ends up on his back, finally letting air into his starving lungs as he stares up at the sky. The trees follow his path, stretching up and up and up—

“Are you okay!?” Tommy stops next to him, chest rising steadily as he crouches down. Tubbo isn’t too far behind, looking down at him with worried eyes.

“That…” Techno takes a gasping breath, lets it sit in his lungs and then breathes out heavily through his nose. “Was awesome.” He grins.

“Oh my god, he’s fucking out of it.” Tubbo snickers, dropping to his knees. “Are you sure you're okay?” Tubbo asks, shaking his arm.

“Can we do that again?” Techno asks instead, pushing himself into a sitting position. Black vein-like patterns run over his hands, disappearing underneath his sweater. He stares for a second before choosing to ignore it, because the other two didn’t seem to be worried about it. So it had to be normal for them, or he’s hallucinating, either way it’s fine.

“After you drink some water.” Tubbo says, standing up. “Speaking of water…”

“Ranboo!” Tommy calls, looking back the way they came. “Where is our water boy?”

“Here!” Ranboo huffs, a few metres down in the bush. He stutters to a stroll, heaving as he holds up the water bottles. “Jesus…Ever heard of slowing down?” Ranboo heaves, slowly walking up to them. Once he gets over he hands Techno a bottle, falling on his back a second later. “I think…I’m going to lay here for a bit.”

“We broke Boo.” Tubbo laughs, stretching his arms above his head. Techno takes a swig of water as he stands, looking towards the direction they were running in. There was still more forest to run through, to explore. To feel the air leave his lungs and the wind through his hair, telling him he’ll be alright. As long as he is running, he’ll be alright.

“We should probably head back soon.” Tommy says, turning toward him. “You need to beat your dad home, remember? Techno?” Tommy comments.

Techno didn’t really care for beating his dad dad home, not when the forests sprawled on forever. “Techno?” He hears Ranboo’s voice and he turns. Ranboo’s eyeing him, not just him though, the other two as well. “What is it?”

“Oh I know what this is.” Tubbo’s eyes widen as he looks at Tommy. “You know when parents take their kids to the mall and they run off in the coat racks, I think that’s what this is.” Tubbo says, taking a step towards him.

“Techno’s not going to run off—“ Tommy is cut off of Techno dropping his water bottle, sprinting away from them as a smile blooms across his face. He can only laugh as the three give chase.