Chapter Text
The process of getting Dream dressed was somehow more awkward than cleaning him up was and even Techno had no desire to bring it up again to tease him. It would have been easy, too, if he had wanted to; there had been entirely too many previous instances of Dream being pants-less around him though the seriousness of this situation was different, not something to joke about.
He tugged the shirt down over Dream’s head and then sat back, watching Dream rub his ears, head tilted to the side.
“You good?” he asked.
Dream looked up.
“It itches,” signed Dream.
“If you have fleas, I’m gonna take back everythin’ I’ve said.”
“I don’t—I don’t have fleas.” A beat. “I think.”
“Sounds like somethin’ someone with fleas would say,” Techno said.
With one hand, Dream scratched at one of the healing scabs, trying to find some sort of relief, and with the other hand, he flipped Techno off.
“Shut up, Techno.”
“Welp.” Getting to his feet, Techno stretched his arms above his head, fingers brushing against the low spruce ceiling, and glanced towards the door. “I guess you’re sleepin’ outside.”
“What!?”
The incredulity in Dream’s voice made Techno laugh.
“I’m teasin’ you, Dream,” he said. “C’mon, I’ll give you a piggy – heh – back ride upstairs.”
Dream stared at Techno in confusion.
“Fine, you can sleep in the chair.” Techno yawned exaggeratedly. “I’m gonna sleep in my own bed.”
He turned towards the ladder. There was the sound of Dream thumping his remaining foot against the ground followed almost immediately by him cursing. Techno turned back around.
“Alright, don’t hurt your dang self,” said Techno, taking Dream’s hand and draping it over his shoulder. Dream weighed close to nothing, making it easy for Techno to pull him up onto his back. “Hold on, we don’t want you fallin’ down the ladder again.”
At those words, Dream’s fingers tightened on Techno’s shoulders, digging into his skin. Against his back, Techno could feel how fast his heart was beating and he climbed the ladder as quickly as possible, trying to get this short trip over even quicker. Once upstairs, he lowered Dream onto the bed.
“See, I didn’t even drop you.”
“…barely,” Dream mumbled.
Techno picked up a pillow and tossed it at him.
“Hush or next time I will.”
Dream grabbed the pillow, considered throwing it back, and instead tossed it vaguely in Techno’s direction. He scooted to the other side of the bed, trying to keep any pressure off his bad leg. It was a foot or so but by the end of it, Dream felt out of breath, frustration growing, until he felt like he was going to burst.
And then Techno flopped onto the bed and Dream deflated.
He didn’t have the energy to be angry.
Curling in on himself, Dream laid down, back almost pressed against the far wall. There was a type of safety in knowing that nothing could come up behind him, but the sort of safety that he knew was false; if someone wanted to hurt him, walls wouldn’t stop them. He shuddered.
“Here,” said Techno as he covered Dream with a blanket, tucking it around him carefully and avoiding the sprained ankle by a lot. “You were lookin’ kinda pathetic just lying there.”
“You are so annoying,” Dream said. His voice was muffled by his arm, burying his face into the crook of his elbow.
Techno made a noise of agreement that trailed off into low humming. It was a song he remembered from when he was a child, that stuck with him even when so many other memories had faded. The melody was simple and bittersweet though Techno didn’t know if his feelings were coloring it or not. He slipped into bed, yawning and not bothering to cover his mouth. It was dark and the only one around was Dream.
The disjointed explanation of why Dream had been so angry to see him in the prison had dug into Techno’s chest and settled there. He got it. Plenty of nights had passed with Techno sitting awake, wondering if he should’ve done more, should do more. Sometimes when he closed his eyes, he could see the bright flashes of light, hear the fireworks going off.
If he had done more that day at the festival, would people have seen him as a person, as someone worthy of being understood?
Even if his death would have been almost certain, Techno sometimes thought it would’ve been worth it.
There was no way Techno wouldn’t understand Dream doing something so monumentally stupid in some strange attempt to be worthy of kindness, not when he still had those same thoughts, alone at night, not wanting to burden Phil further.
With a sigh, Techno rolled over to face Dream, inching close enough to feel Dream’s breath, and wrapped his arm around him. Dream tensed for a moment, almost like muscle memory, then relaxed. His ears swiveled forward, the longer one tickling Techno’s nose, a slightly annoying reminder that he wasn’t alone, not anymore.
Dream jerked awake.
There was some noise, drifting in from outside, that had pulled him from his sleep. He froze, nose twitching furiously. Besides Techno’s snoring, it was silent in the room. Nothing seemed amiss but he couldn’t get his heart to stop pounding so hard and fast that it hurt his chest. He wanted change. A voice in the back of his mind reminded him that rabbits didn’t have to think and he almost gave in to that desire until he remembered his promise.
It wasn’t really a promise. He hadn’t said the word but Techno had told him not to transform and if he did, Techno would have to rewrap his ankle and he’d have to get dressed again and that felt like too much.
Glancing over his shoulder, Dream made certain that Techno was still asleep. He had forgotten to take off his glasses and the broken lens caught the light oddly. Dream sat there for a moment, back to Techno, watching the shadows on the wall, then he flopped onto his side lightly, stretched out as he waited to drift back to sleep.
When sleep finally did come once again, there were no rabbit dreams, no nightmares, only flashes of bright blue skies and green grass and familiar laughter and the smell of cinnamon and a building that was in the quiet tundra or it was surrounded by water but everything was peaceful.
It was a good Dream.
There was a weight on Techno’s arm, a distinctly human-sized weight, and Techno sighed in relief. He had half expected to wake up to find that Dream had shape-shifted back into a rabbit because it was safe and how could Techno really fault him for that? But Dream’s back was pressed firmly against his side and for once he wasn’t curled up into a ball.
Techno reached out and scratched the base of Dream’s ear. The fur was soft and his ear twitched but he didn’t move any further. Techno sighed again. He ruffled Dream’s hair. That earned him a swat as Dream rubbed his hand against his face. He made no indication that he was in the process of waking up and Techno was beginning to believe it was on purpose.
“Alright, man, you gotta get off my arm,” said Techno.
The response was a grunt.
“I mean, I could move my arm and leave you up here all alone if you want to fall down the ladder again.” Techno was already pulling his arm out from under Dream. “Up to you, Dream.”
Dream thumped his remaining foot in annoyance.
“Ow,” he said, immediately.
Techno’s laugh was loud, booming in the small attic room. As much as he tried, he couldn’t stop the laughter from growing. He pressed his forehead against Dream’s shoulder, shaking with amusement. He could feel Dream sigh deeply and for some reason that sent him over the edge again. Wrapping his arm around Dream, he tried to collect himself. It took longer than he thought it would and when he calmed down, his cheeks were wet. He let go, tugged his arm completely free, and wiped his face.
“I’m sorry, Dream, I’m sorry,” he said, sitting up. His glasses weren’t in their usual place and began feeling around the bed. “You gotta admit that was pretty funny.”
“No..?” Dream’s voice rose in pitch. “That—That wasn’t funny. You’re the worst.”
Techno found his glasses. One of the arms was crooked and he carefully bent it back before placing them on his snout.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m so awful, Dream.” Techno yawned, still waking up. The sky outside was cloudy and grey and Techno knew it would be a cold day. “Looks like you got some sleep, though.”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Dream, not wanting to agree fully out of a combination of habit and spite. Then his cheeks went hot and he added, “I mean, it’s—It was better than the prison.”
Chuckling, Techno dug through his dresser to find a clean shirt.
“Gee, thanks Dream.” He pulled the shirt on, looking at Dream with one eyebrow raised. “You want me to help you downstairs or do you wanna stay up here?”
Dream rolled onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling and then shrugged.
Techno waited. When the silence stretched on with no answer, he sat back down on the bed, pulling the blanket back up over Dream, folding the edge down as neatly as possible, just to have something to do.
“C’mon, don’t leave me hangin’ here,” he said as the quiet had began to verge into awkwardness.
“Phil asked me what I was going to do next.”
“Ah.” Techno had heard, lingering by the kitchen entryway, full of worry that things would go badly, that Phil and Dream would butt heads, fearing the worst. But the worst hadn’t happened. The conversation had just been heavy and sad and Techno regretted eavesdropping. “And you don’t know, huh.”
“No,” said Dream, his voice small and angry.
Reaching out, Techno took his hand, tightening his grip when Dream started to pull away. After a moment, Dream relaxed and wrapped his fingers around Techno’s. They both ignored the tears that wet the fine fur on his face.
“I mean, you don’t gotta have it all figured out right now, Dream,” he said. “Stuff like this takes time, y’know? You’ll figure it out. Right now all you gotta do is decide if you want to go back to sleep or go downstairs.”
Dream pulled his hand away and wiped his face with Techno’s carefully folded blanket.
“Don’t drop me,” he signed as an answer.