Chapter Text
Wilbur and Techno were as thick as thieves. It had been that way since they’d met last year. Wilbur had come up to Techno and had been there ever since. Where one was, you’d usually find the other.
Until now, that is.
Techno couldn’t find Wilbur, and his instincts were going berserk.
As two piglin hybrids, Wilbur and Techno had developed a sounder bond pretty quickly, spending a week or two in Techno’s home until they’d both allowed the other to leave. They’d been so attached to one another within a few days of meeting that Techno couldn’t just let his sounder leave .
He still wasn’t entirely sure why he was so protective of Wilbur, but Wilbur seemed more than happy with Techno’s overprotective nature.
He was worried.
As a brute, he was supposed to protect his sounder, and now he couldn’t find him.
They’d been in the marketplace and had gotten temporarily separated, now Wilbur was nowhere to be found.
He chuffed, shouted, and called for his sounder, but Wilbur didn’t come nor respond.
Was he abandoned?
Again? A poisonous voice whispers.
He shook his head, no, Wilbur didn’t have anywhere else to go. He wouldn’t just up and leave Techno.
He couldn’t.
Right?
He just couldn’t rid himself of the doubt that maybe Wilbur had left him.
Just like his first sounder had. Up and left him in the middle of a marketplace similar to this.
Techno had raised himself after that and managed to get a good job and buy a nice house. He didn’t have to work anymore, a mercenary got paid pretty well and Techno sometimes picked up an odd job if he thought they were running low, but they’d been good.
Maybe he hadn’t done enough.
He calls and calls for Wilbur, staying even after dark searching for his brother. He went home to see if Wilbur was there, but Wilbur wasn’t there.
He searched and searched, but still couldn’t find where Wilbur had gone. He grabbed something of Wilbur’s to keep him grounded as he goes back out to the streets to look for his brother.
“Wilbur? Wilbur!” Techno calls into the dark.
“Mph!” He hears to his right.
He looks down an alleyway and sees Wilbur tied and gagged, kneeling in the dirt of the alley. His eyes widen as Techno chuffs reassuringly at him.
Wilbur shakes his head as Techno approaches, and Techno hears the sounds of people shuffling.
An ambush?
For who? Him?
Techno’s never done anything that would require revenge. He’d never stolen or killed. Sure, he’d sent that one person to jail, but that wasn’t his fault nor what his job was to do.
Techno continues to approach Wilbur, waiting for the shuffle of feet moving toward him. Then he swings.
The first and second people go down easily, the other three, having seen Techno incapacitate their comrades fairly easily, wait just out of range of his angered fists.
Techno stands between Wilbur and the threats, listening to his brother protest behind a gag. Techno watches and waits. He was always a better fighter if the other person moved first.
But he could take the offense if he wanted.
“What do you want?” Techno growls.
“Two piglins are hardly something we can pass up,” the person directly in front of him says, “good fighters for the rings.”
“The illegal ones?”
“No, the legal ones,” someone responds sarcastically. Techno huffs but says nothing more.
“Johnny had the darts!” Someone whispers and Techno backs up until he stands over Wilbur. He drops his good knife in Wilbur’s lap, praying he didn’t hurt his brother as he pulls out his second knife.
“I’ve got a crossbow,” the one in front of him says, slinging out a crossbow, and loading an arrow. “Poison-tipped.” There’s a smirk as he fires the arrow at Techno’s leg. Techno doesn’t dare try to dodge, or else he would risk Wilbur getting hit.
The potion effects take hold immediately but Techno holds his ground.
“Shit! Try weakness!”
Techno doesn’t wait anymore. He throws himself at the man on his left, knocking him out before moving on to the one on his right. The one that had been in front of him reloads his crossbow in the meantime and fires another arrow straight into Techno’s arm.
Techno snarls and lunges, another arrow, this one held in the man’s hand, penetrates the already injured leg, and Techno’s vision sways.
He hears a snarl behind him as he falls to the ground, unable to hold himself upright anymore. He whines in painHe hears a thud and suddenly his brother is cupping his face.
“You idiot,” Wilbur says. “Can you walk?” Techno chuffs at his brother, unable to make his throat work properly. “C’mon, big man.” Wilbur pulls Techno up and Techno’s vision blurs. “Damnit, I can’t look at the wounds until we get home or I’m gonna go into my instincts, Tech.”
Techno tries to purr, but the vibration upsets his stomach and he gags on his empty stomach.
“No! Don’t vomit here. Oh, uh hey!” Wilbur says to someone. “Those men back there did this, I’m taking him home. You know where we live?” Wilbur talks to someone, and Techno begins to get jealous. He growls and lays heavily on his brother.
Wilbur grunts at the weight and sighs.
“We need to go, if you could take care of that I’d appreciate it greatly. C’mon Tech.” They wobble home and Techno chuffs at his brother again.
“Sounder-sounder-love-mine-sounder,” he chuffs.
“Yeah, yeah I– Three?!” Wilbur blurs as he steps away from Techno, but then he’s back in Techno’s vision, worrying over the arrows protruding from Techno’s limbs. “Brute-hurt-help-love-brute-sorry!”
Pain erupts in his body as Wilbur yanks the arrows out and Techno whines at each one. Gentle hands push him into a nest, or was it the couch? Maybe it was Techno’s bed. Techno couldn’t tell what it was from how blurred and spinny his vision was.
“Sorry-sorry-no-leave-beg-beg-please-no-leave,” Techno whines when Wilbur’s hands let go of him.
“No-leave-brute-sounder-mine-love,” Wilbur chuffs back, his hand patting Techno’s uninjured arm. “Bring-food-drink-love-care.”
Techno whines as he hears Wilbur walk away. If he hadn’t been abandoned before, he was now. He pulls at the bandages on his arms as his mind spirals. His instincts cry out at the absence of his sounder and Techno is convinced that he’s being abandoned again.
Brutes weren’t supposed to get hurt, they weren’t supposed to be weak like this. This was why his last sounder had left.
He hears the door click open as another high whine leaves his lips.
“Worried-worried-hurt-where-hurt-where?” Wilbur’s question was the last straw as Techno begins to let tears slip down his face. “No-sad-love-love-hurt-where?”
“Sad-sad-no-leave-beg-please-please-no-leave-be-strong!” Techno reaches for where he’d thought he’d heard his brother’s voice.
“Brute-good-love-brute-why-brute-sad?” Wilbur’s hands push Techno back down against the soft surface.
Techno grabs his brother’s wrists and refuses to let go. “Sad-no-strong-no-good-want-sounder-stay-beg-please,” he pleads. Wilbur’s hands gently push Techno’s away. Techno whines, but Wilbur’s arms are pulling him into a hug.
“Good-brute-perfect-love-adoration-love,” Wilbur responds. Techno lets his brother hold him. It’s only a few moments later that Wilbur is pushing food against his lips and a cup of liquid is poured into his mouth.
Techno falls asleep soon after, clinging to his brother, praying that he doesn’t wake up to discover that his brother had left him again.
Techno wakes up warm, arms wrapped around his middle. He groans as a headache throbs in his temple and his arrow wounds ache harshly.
He tries to sit up, thinking he’d hugged himself in his sleep again, but Wilbur snarls, pulling Techno back down.
“Wil? You’re–You’re okay,” Techno breathes, cupping his brother’s face. Wilbur peels his eyelids apart and yawns.
“Mhm, you’re not though,” Wilbur says, giving Techno a harsh look. Techno settles back down in their den, now that he can see. “They gave you poison, weakness, and nausea. One stabbed you and– you were bleeding so much, Techno.” Wilbur’s eyes fill with tears. “I thought you were gonna die for a hot minute.” Wilbur laughs wetly.
“Technoblade never dies,” Techno says, gently poking Wilbur’s shoulder.
There’s a silence while Wilbur lets his worry flow out in the form of tears and Techno comforts his brother.
Then Wilbur tenses in his arms, levelling a glare at Techno.
“What was that shit about your insecurities? Huh? Who told you that you were a shit brute?”
“What?”
Techno blinks. He’s never told Wilbur about his doubts of being a brute. Or so he’d thought.
“You’re the best sounder I’ve ever had, the best brute, and I would never abandon you like your old sounder did.” Wilbur moves his arms to cup Techno’s face, forcing Techno to look at Wilbur.
Looking at Wilbur makes Techno feel like he’s facing every fear he’s ever had right in front of Wilbur. Letting his brother see every insecurity, every doubt and fear he’d ever harbored away from sight, and letting his brother care for him while he was vulnerable.
It was terrifying.
“I love you, Technoblade. You’re mine, and I’m yours,” Techno’s instincts preen at the confirmation but Wilbur doesn’t stop, “brutes are going to get hurt, brutes are not invincible, because no matter how strong or great you are at fighting, everyone has their limitations.” Wilbur looks sincerely into Techno’s eyes. “We are human, we aren’t perfect in every way. We will fail at some point. So will you.”
“No–”
Wilbur interrupts his protest, “Just because you fail doesn’t mean I’ll stop loving you. Your flaws are the thorns on a rose bush. Roses are beautiful but you have to be careful when taking their beauty because they have thorns, right? The thorns are there to protect, but sometimes they hurt the ones that mean to help them.”
“I would never–”
“Hurt me, I know,” Wilbur bonks their heads together in a show of affection before exposing his neck in a sign of trust, “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that people don’t mind the thorns of a bush just because their carelessness caused them to get hurt. Sure, they don’t like the thorns, but the thorns aren’t necessarily bad. Sorry, that was a really bad analogy.”
Techno huffs, but stews on Wilbur’s words.
Wilbur had a point, as poorly as it had benn made.
Growing up, Techno had been taught that brutes showed no vulnerability, especially outside the den, and sure, outside the house in public, it had made sense, but at home? How was he, a kid, supposed to feel safe if he wasn’t allowed to be vulnerable?
It was a question that had plagued him throughout his childhood.
He’d gotten injured in the marketplace and had shed a few tears. It wasn’t his fault that the burn from being shoved into a hot furnace had burned his arm.
He looks at the scorch marks that linger on his arm, his short-sleeved shirt showing many of the scars he’d garnered in his years of growing up.
His sounder had disowned him in the middle of a crowded marketplace and left. They’d locked him out of their home and moved cities.
Techno remembers hiding in the blacksmith’s shop, helping out there until he’d gotten an offer to become a mercenary. It still blows his mind that a smithy was still operating in this day and age.
“What is that one from?” Wilbur asks, his gaze moving from Techno’s eyes to his arm.
“The day my old sounder abandoned me. I was–” Techno takes a breath “–was shoved into a furnace, and I caught myself with that arm. I’d cried after they’d put the fire out on my arm and my sounder disowned me and left.”
“How old were you?” Techno looks back up at Wilbur, debating whether or not to tell him. “Please?”
Techno sighs. He could never say no to Wilbur. “Thirteen.”
“You were what?!” Wilbur stares in shock. “I didn’t grow up with piglins, but even I know that’s not okay!”
Techno blinks in surprise. “You didn’t grow up with piglins?”
“No, my dad and brother live a ways away, I came here to make new friends and met you. That’s who those letters come from.” Wilbur waves his hand at a few letters that Techno had never noticed before. “They’re both avians.”
“Oh…” Techno nods to himself. “Were they good to you?”
“Well… yeah, they love me and I love them– where do you think you’re going?” Wilbur asks as Techno pulls away.
“We’re leaving here and moving in with your family.”