Chapter Text
The three tall figures stood underneath the grove of trees, staring gloomily back at the farm, and the abandoned house that stood covered in shadows under the light of the moon. They stood there in awkward silence for about five minutes until the undead had finished swarming around the house. The tallest raised his hand to block out the bright moon and squinted as he watched the zombies break down the door to the house. A spider had already stuck it’s head in the chimney. The shortest person glanced back at the chest the middle one had dragged out before the zombies had taken the house by storm. A haphazard jumble of handles and other bits and pieces that he couldn’t identify stuck out of the lid of the chest. Or was it a chest… Tommy couldn’t tell because he had never seen something like it. It had loops and was not made of wood like normal chests.
As Tommy turned his attention back to the house, a small bright light flared to life near the building. It grew larger by the second, and soon a quarter of the house was enveloped in bright flames. The tallest person, Wilbur gaped in astonishment as another bright spark came sailing through the air to land on the house. Will followed the curve of the arrow and strained his eyes, trying to see where it had come from. He could barely see something, but his eyes kept making it disappear, so he wasn’t sure if it was there or not. It was like when you look right next to a star you can see it, but when you looked directly at it, it disappeared. He nudged Tommy trying to get his attention.
“Tommy. Tommy,” he whispered.
Tommy turned his attention away from the house to Wilbur. “What.”
Will pointed a finger in some direction of the inky blackness beside the house. “Do you see anything there Tommy?” He squinted trying to tell if he could see anything, or if his mind was playing tricks on him. A grunt came from somewhere to his right and Tommy startled, before realizing that it was Technoblade. Techno glanced over at the place where they were trying to look, then continued to rummage through the odd chest-like object on the ground.
“Yeah, that’s a skeleton with a bow that’s probably enchanted with Flame.” Tommy did a quick double take, and whipped around to face Techno.
“What the-?! How do you know that?!!” Techno lifted his head from the chest and glared at Tommy.
“Arrow flies, sets fire to building, therefore, arrow must have fire on it, and the only enchantment that would be able to do that is Flame. Also I can literally see the glowing bow.” Tommy turned back around and squinted into the blackness.
“How can you - see - tell that’s a bow?” Techno gave an annoyed glare to Tommy, before moving his head back to the odd chest. Tommy turned to Wilbur, seeking an answer, but Will was shaking his head helplessly at Techno, glancing up for a moment to look at Tommy before looking back down again. They stood in silence, while Tommy stared angrily at Techno. Why won’t he TELL me anything!
Techno let out his breath in a rush, leaning back on his knees to observe the now neatly packed backpack. That’s what it was, a backpack, and Tommy and Wilbur had never seen one of them before because they had had no need for them. Backpacks were meant for travel. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, feeling mixed emotions. A), Tommy was an extremely annoying person already, B), he felt sadness watching his home burn, and C), he felt the weight of responsibility coming down on him like it had many years ago. Not again. Technoblade opened his eyes with a start, realizing that he would have to be responsible for these two, and he didn’t know where they would go.
Gritting his teeth, the tall man grabbed the backpack, flinging it over his back with ease. He nodded towards Wilbur and gestured with his hand for Will to come closer. “Alright. We need to leave,” Wilbur’s eyes met Techno’s, and then strayed towards the backpack on his shoulders.
“I’m sorry about your house. You built that whole thing didn’t you,” Wilbur asked softly, his face full of concern. Techno let out a weary sigh, before rubbing his eyes, and walking over to collect Tommy, who was standing with hands on hips, watching the house burn. Techno regretted not having collected more potatoes on the way out, they would need the food. Tommy turned around, just in time to see the tall adult walking towards him. He stared at Techno suspiciously, before commenting on the state of the house.
“Well, that building was very flammable, the person who built that probably didn’t know how to make a house that was flame-proof. I’ve seen way better houses than that one.”
Techno narrowed his eyes at Tommy, just generally annoyed with the teenager. “I do hope you realize I built that.” He stared at Tommy, waiting for an answer.
Tommy, offended by the tone of voice that Techno had used, spat back a reply. “Really? Well it didn’t stand up much did it!”
Wilbur, who was staying off to the side and thinking his own thoughts, had his attention drawn to Tommy and Techno. He could see both of them bristling up for a fight. Uh oh. Will knew that if Tommy didn’t back down, Techno would escalate the argument, even if not meaning to. Will also knew that if someone challenged Tommy, he wouldn’t back down, so the two had clashing personalities.
Technoblade took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down, and, opening his eyes, he caught Tommy making a derogatory glance towards him and rolling his eyes. It was then that he lost his self-control around the young boy for the next couple of days. Do it. You should, Wilbur wouldn’t care, lets teach this boy a lesson. Techno violently lurched forwards and grabbed Tommy’s arm in one hand, twisting it upwards. He snarled in Tommy’s face, red edging in around his vision, and the blonde boy in front of him struggled frantically to get out of the intimidating man’s grip.
Tommy swallowed nervously, his blue eyes wide, and tried to pull his arm out from the painfully tight grip.
“S-sorry?” He looked back towards Wilbur who was staring alarmingly at Technoblade, eyes wide. Won’t he help me? As Tommy’s eyes switched from being scared of Techno, to wondering what was up with Will, Techno furrowed his eyebrows together and glared at Tommy, showing his teeth. Tommy’s attention was dragged back to the two oddly long pointed canines on the older person’s lower jaw. Tommy squinted at them, feeling terrified and curious at the same time.
Wilbur could see Techno’s hand shaking as he reached for something that wasn’t there. Will’s eyes flitted from Technoblade’s back to Tommy’s face and back again. Techno’s the same as he always has been. He smiled bitterly, and reached a hesitant hand towards Techno, but his brain started cycling along a rut that was hard to get out of. Wait… would he have ever blown up at a child because of something? No? Would he have just… ignored them? Then Wilbur started to laugh, drawing back his hand. It wasn’t a hearty laugh, more like a hysteric laugh. He saw Techno stiffen and Tommy try to wriggle out of the grip, and laughed even harder. Finally the blonde boy jerked out of Techno’s grip, and stood staring at Wilbur as he laughed and laughed.
Techno lifted his head out of the red haze, ignoring that the teenager had escaped his grip and also stood, watching Wilbur with his eyes narrowed, not paying attention to the fact that his lower teeth were still sticking out. Is he laughing at me? You better not be laughing at me.
“What?” Techno growled in annoyance, observing his old friend.
“Will?” Tommy asked hesitantly.
As Technoblade watched Wilbur, he quieted down to tiny little hiccups of laughter, before stopping altogether. He apologized, shrugged, and winked at Techno. Heh? He felt Tommy looking at him as well, confused as to why Wilbur had winked at him. Techno turned to look at Tommy with eyebrows raised, noticing that Tommy wouldn’t meet his gaze. He sighed, glancing down at his hands which were twitching with muscle memory, and adjusted the backpack on his shoulders. He set off in a random direction away from the swarm of mobs around his broken house, with Wilbur and Tommy both following him. Here we go, off on another adventure, he thought sarcastically, I wonder what could go wrong.