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Dream was quiet. Technoblade had expected that much, of course; he had been stuck in prison for, what, ten months at this point? And with next to no social interaction too. It made sense he might be a bit more withdrawn. But when Techno had visited (scratch that, was locked inside ), it only took a bit of prodding to get him talking and emoting and everything, and, while they were first breaking out, Dream didn’t seem able to stop talking! Shocking, Technoblade knew, but he guessed freedom, hope, and the first breath of fresh air in almost a year could do that to someone.
But, once they were out and away from the prison, it changed. Dream was silent after that, constantly alternating between glancing anxiously behind them and staring apprehensively at Technoblade’s back. Techno could literally feel the eyes on him, boring a hole into his spine.
But that wasn’t the surprising part, or, at least, it wasn’t the worrying part. No, no, that was Dream’s stillness, his unsteadiness, the way he jumped any time Technoblade said his name and the way he flinched whenever Techno made a sudden motion or got closer to him. That was concerning, and what was even more so was his injuries. The second that Dream got his hands on armor, of course, he immediately tried to hide those wounds, and, admittedly, he didn’t do a half-bad job at it, but Techno had already seen them. And even if he hadn’t, he had been stuck in the prison with Dream for months , and that had already shown him what he needed to know. He’d seen some of what the man was going through and was able to infer the rest. None of it was good.
But that was even more of a reason that Techno had to take care of those injuries. They weren’t just going to heal by themselves, not when they were so many and so deep. But, before he could even start on that, he had to get Dream to agree to it first. Yay, Techno just loves confrontation oh so very much.
Technoblade forced himself to look over at Dream, who was sitting rigidly in front of the fire. The man hadn’t moved since they had reached the cabin. Techno was half surprised that Dream had even come home with him in the first place, just going off how uncomfortable he looked. Well, it was a good thing he had, because otherwise Techno probably wouldn’t be able to find him for a long, long time – Techno could admit that much. And, if that happened, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to help Dream.
“Dream?” Techno tried. The man in question stiffened at the sound of his name, but he glanced over at the piglin for a moment, and that was enough for Techno to count it as a success. “You okay? Not hurtin’ or anythin’?”
“I’m fine, Techno.” Dream huffed and turned back towards the fire. He stared at the flames like they were the most important thing in the world, as if they held the secrets to life itself. Maybe they did, with all the weird magic in the world, but that didn’t mean Dream was going to get out of this conversation.
“You’re literally bleeding right now, Dream. I can see the blood,” Technoblade observed.
“It’s–that’s old. And it doesn’t hurt, not really,” Deam reassured him quickly. “It–I just kinda, uh, reopened some new injuries with all the–yeah. It’s not anything to worry about.”
“Really? Like, sorry for doubting you, but I literally am right now.”
“Look, it’s fine, Techno,” Dream repeated, irritation creeping into his voice. “It’s–it’s not your problem, okay?”
“We were roomies for three months, Dream, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to go straight back to that ‘cause you don’t have a house. Your problems are my problems, especially if your problems are gonna end up staining my rug.”
Dream sighed. “You’re not gonna let this go, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Fine.” Dream pushed himself up, wincing as he pushed himself off the ground, and turned to face Techno, the flames crackling behind him. “Yeah, I’m hurt. What are you gonna do about it?” he asked scornfully.
“Just heal them up.” Techno patted the spot on the couch next to him. Dream reluctantly obeyed the motion, going to sit next to him with tension keeping his head up high and back straight. He looked skittish, like he was about to run at any moment. “Can I see?”
“Fine.” Techno could see the face on Dream’s face and could tell how wary his agreement was. Prime, this was going to be difficult.
“Okay then. If there’s something you don’t me doin’, just tell me and I’ll stop, okay?” Dream nodded again, and Techno busied himself with pulling bandages and a few healing potions out of his bag. He had plenty, but, knowing what Dream had gone through and being able to guess it probably wasn’t the best option right now, he wanted to stay away from them if possible.
“So, um…” Dream cautiously offered Techno his arm, which he took with equal care. It was covered in blood, which was to be expected, really, even if it did make Techno question how Dream was still sitting up and not passed out from blood loss already, especially because he knew that this wasn’t anything close to Dream’s only injury, but, once Techno wiped that away (and got Chat to stop yelling at him, yes he knew it was blood and Dream was injured, no he wasn’t going to fight Dream) and took a good look at the arm, he realized there was a bigger issue.
“Dream, that’s a fracture.” Techno could see a shard of bone, pearly white, poking out of the skin of Dream’s arm.
“That’s–that’s bad, right?”
“Yeah, that’s bad. You’re gonna need a sling or somethin’,” Techno responded. He cast his eyes around the room, trying to find some fabric he could use. A blanket was carefully folded on top of one of the chairs. That could work, he guessed. “Just stay here for a moment. Uh–keep your arm close to your chest, I guess.”
“You don’t do this often, do you?” Dream snarked as Technoblade got up and grabbed the blanket. It was just made of cotton, so not too heavy. Not too large either, so he just folded it in half instead of cutting it.
“Phil’s usually the one doing this, you know,” Techno answered as he hurried back to the couch. “He’s way better at this than I am, trust me. We should still wrap your arm first, though.”
“Okay.” Dream only flinched a little when Techno took his arm and began to wrap the injury in the bandages he grabbed earlier. He didn’t want to risk anything shifting or the wound getting infected or something. That would be bad, Chat, and Dream was already having hard enough of a time as it was. No, Chat, please shut up and stop spamming Technosoft, he was just trying to be nice here, there wasn’t anything wrong with that.
For his part, Dream sat still as a statue for all of it, which made life a lot easier for Techno, so that was great. Technoblade guessed he was used to this, which…wasn’t as great, but still. It made things a little easier, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Soon enough, Techno had finished with the gauze, and that meant he had to figure out the sling part of this. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered as he grabbed the blanket from besides him, carefully folding it into a triangle. Dream just watched him, wide eyes following each movement.
“Prime, this is gonna be complicated,” Techno vocalized, more to himself than to Dream. Now that Technoblade was actually facing Dream, the other man refused to meet his eyes.
“Dream?” Dream’s face snapped up at the sound of his name. “Is it okay if I stand up and sit behind you? There’s space, and it’ll be easier that way. And I’ll probably have to touch your neck or somethin’ to get this done.”
“That’s fine,” Dream agreed quietly, under his breath. “Just…thanks for letting me know, I guess.”
“Of course. It’s literally the bare minimum, and I think it doesn’t take much to reach that much. Some people,” Techno rolled his eyes, “seem to disagree with me ‘bout that, but who cares about them, really?”
Dream laughed quietly at that. It wasn’t the distinctive tea kettle wheezing Techno remembered, but it was still something. “Yeah.” As his laughter died off, his voice replaced it, soft and urgent. “Are–weren’t you gonna do it already?” Techno knew Dream well enough to know what he was really saying – I want to get this over with . “Like, I don’t think this was part of the plan.”
“Nah, it wasn’t.” Techno shrugged. “We kinda went off script there a bit, but it’s fine, we can just do it now. Just keep your arm close to your chest and find a good place for it, ‘cause it’s probably gonna be stuck there for a while.”
Dream nodded and hugged his arm to his chest, eyes warily watching Technoblade’s every movement. Techno stood up, blanket in hand, and set himself down behind Dream, trying to keep his hands visible the whole time. Once that was done, Techno cautiously reached over Dream’s shoulder to wrap one end of the blanket under his arm – admittedly, with a lot of help from the teletubby; it was hard to do something like that when you could barely see what you were doing – and brought the end to Dream's neck. Pining that in place with one hand, Techno reached for the other end of the cloth, careful not to jostle Dream, and drew it up to join its twin. He tied the two ends together and let go.
“That feel okay?” Techno asked.
Dream carefully shifted his body to face Techno. “Yeah. Just–not bad , but, uh, weird . Like it’s floating, kinda.”
“That means it’s working right, I think. But, hey, what do I know? I already told you that I’m not usually the one doing this.” Techno sighed, shaking his head. “We’ll probably look this over when Phil gets back, but that’s for later, anyways. I think that’s enough for now. We’ll see how you’re doing in the morning and try to take it one thing at a time.”
Dream nodded. “Sure.” He still sounded reserved, cautious.
“See, that wasn’t too hard, right?” Techno asked, mostly rhetorically.
“I guess.” Dream half-shrugged. “It’s just–I don’t like feeling like a burden.”
“You’re not a burden, Dream.”
“But I am! I literally am! What–what could I give you? What use could I have? What could I do for you? Like–I know why you broke me out, it was because of the favor, but why are you doing this? I don’t have anything to offer you anymore!” Dream shouted before flinching back at the sound of his voice.
Dream’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Not–not anymore. And you don’t have to do this. I’m not forcing you to do this, and this wasn’t part of the deal, and we’re not friends or something, so why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? If–if they know that you’re helping me, hid–hiding me, they’ll–”
“What will they do? Try to execute me again? I mean, we all know how that went last time,” Techno joked. He lowered his voice. “Dream. Dream, look at me. The server would have probably come after me even if I just left you out in the cold, Dream. They wouldn’t care. I broke you out, and that’s enough involvement for Quackity and his ilk to try and get me. It doesn’t matter if I help you or not, not to them. This isn’t going to put me in any more danger than I’m already in.”
“But I’m the reason you’re in danger in the first place! If you hadn’t broken me out–” Dream’s voice broke. “If–if you hadn’t come back–”
“That was never not an option. I made a promise, and I don’t break promises. That’s just not something I do, Dream.”
“Yeah, and you already fulfilled your promise!” Dream’s voice rose, angry and desperate, before falling again. He glanced away from Techno. “You don’t have to pretend that we’re friends, you know,” he mumbled, eyes downturned. “Q–Quackity’s not here.”
“You thought I was just doing that for Quackity?” Techno asked, taken aback. It was slightly true, yes, he knew, Chat, but they were still friends. He just didn’t know Dream saw it that way. Actually, that explained a lot of things, now that he thought about it. “Dream, I literally beta-read your Wattpad fanfiction.” (“I don’t write fanfiction, stop it,” Dream muttered) “Quackity didn’t know about that, did he?”
Technoblade sighed when he saw the look on Dream’s face. “Look. We were stuck together for three months in an enclosed space, and we didn’t kill each other. I think that makes us friends, y’know?” He guided Dream’s face up so he could see Techno’s eyes. The other man didn’t try to fight him, instead lying limb in his grip. “It wasn’t just pretending, Dream. Not for me.”
“I wanted to believe it,” Dream admitted quietly, sounding like he was choking over every word. “That it wasn’t just an act.”
“Well, it’s a good thing it wasn’t, then,” Techno responded. “You’re never gettin’ rid of me, bestie.”
Dream finally smiled at that. “Oh no, how will I ever survive,” he answered, rolling his eyes.
“Well, we’ll just have to figure that out, right?” Technoblade joked. “My views have gone up way too much just from being around you for me to let you leave right now.”
“I can still ruin your monetization, though,” Dream realized, eyes lighting up at the discovery. “You can’t make any money that way, can you?”
“You wouldn’t –”
“Yes, I fucking would–”
“I try to do one nice thing and this is what happens–”