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Technoblade didn’t know a lot about servers.
He knew the basicsーthat each server has its own “world,” all of which are connected through portals located in the main hub, Hypixel, and that each person’s code had to be wired into each world code, to keep out unwanted people. But even then, he’s still confusedーlike how is he supposed to know what code actually is, or how portals even worked? He’s sure he could ask an admin, like Phil or Dream, but to be honest he doesn’t really care.
As long as he can freely go between different servers and have different houses, he doesn’t care about the logistics.
That all being said, he’s pretty sure that when you go through a portal, everything about the server you came from was supposed to leave your person.
So why is he standing in the Dream SMP with bunny ears standing atop his head?
He had been in the Origin SMP before deciding to go check on his dogs in the Dream SMP, but as he said before, your person is supposed to “reset” when you enter new SMPs, so what gives. When he was added to the Origin SMP, and he had the option between a bunch of animal “origins,” he had admittedly not listened very well, and thought that he was supposed to just pick his favorite looking one on the list.
Which is how he got stuck with bunny ears and a white bunny tailーwhich he really hopes isn’t here right now.
It isn’t as bad as Techno makes it sound like it is. He enjoys the taste of carrotsーwhich is good, since that’s apparently all he can eatーand the way they’re planted is similar to potatoes, so he has enough experience to keep himself alive soon after joining. He learned that he can both run very fast and jump long distancesーwhich Phil says is hopping, despite Techno’s complainingーso it isn’t the worst option he could’ve picked, he guesses. He even got a cute outfit to fully embrace the carrot farmer role, so there’s that.
But still, that’s all supposed to stay in the Origin SMP, not travel over to the Dream SMP, where he’s supposed to be a powerful anarchist who occasionally has to deal with a homeless green teletubby and a blond gremlin child, while sometimes having to film scripted videos of him as literally himself.
That reminds himーhe’s glad that lore isn’t scheduled for anytime soon, because he has no idea how long it will take before this problem gets fixed.
Techno’s thoughts are broken when he hears footsteps in the distance, his head whipping to the direction they're coming from while his bunny ears twitch. Another perk of being a bunny in the Origin SMP is that he has extremely advanced hearing, but he’d honestly rather have been oblivious to the person coming his way.
He has too much on his plate right now to deal with another thingーespecially if that thing is socializin’.
It’s at that exact moment that he remembers that today is sparring day.
Which is just totally what he needs right now.
Dream, his sparring partner (and totally not his crush), comes to his arctic house every Saturday to spend the entire day exchanging sword swipes and blocks with TechnoーDream has a lot of stamina, something Techno does not ever think about late at nightー, and their routine has never been broken. Ever. And Techno’s pretty sure that if he tried to break it now, Dream would taunt Techno enough to make him annoyed, therefore leading to the pinkette attacking him anyway.
So, he can’t cancel sparring day, he can’t try and go back into the Origin SMP to see if just going through the portal and back again would fix this whole mess (simply because he doesn’t have the time if he’s able to hear Dream’s footsteps fairly loudly), and he can’t ask Phil to try and fix his code (‘cause that’s all he can think is wrong with him), so he’s left to do one thing:
Run into his house, try and find anything to cover his head, hope to any god listening that he doesn’t have a bunny tail right now, and then stand in the doorway to wait for Dream and try to make it not obvious that he’s nervous.
Sounds simple enough.
Except for the fact that he doesn’t own a single hat. He doesn’t like to hide his hair, and covering it with any material besides the hard gold of a crown makes it all frizzy, and if it doesn’t fit just right then it’ll slide off his head. He just isn’t a hat guy, what can he say. Now, though, he’s really wishing that he went through some faze where he was insecure of his head shape and decided to cover it with hats, or something.
That doesn’t make any sense, but he’s panicking, okay?!
Just as he thinks all hope is lost, and as he can hear Dream slowly climbing up the staircase outside, his eyes catch on a brown beanie thrown over a lamp in his room. He vaguely remembers letting Wilbur stay there one night while the man was avoiding someone, he doesn’t remember, but the man must’ve left it here, because it certainly isn’t Techno’s.
A knock on the door causes Techno’s heart to pound and his hand to reach out and grab the beanie. He doesn’t think twice before awkwardly smushing his ears into the hat, the material resting over his head and hopefully not bulging awkwardly out at all. It isn’t until the beanie is fully on his head that he registers that there’s probably fleas in it, or something, you can’t trust half-insane Wilbur to take care of random beanie #50 that he owns.
Whatever, there isn’t much he can do now besides open his front door and put on the most normal smile possible.
Dream is standing there on his doorstep, as expected, but this time without his mask, less expected. A month ago, Techno had accidentally broken the blond’s mask during a sparring session, and since then, Dream has stopped wearing it around him altogether. It shouldn’t affect him as much as it doesーso what if Dream has a perfect face? He’s seen attractive people before he isn’t blind ーbut he can already feel a small flush on his cheeks.
Luckily, Dream couldn’t have noticed it, since his eyes are glued solely on Techno’s head, his eyes wide in surprise and his mouth slightly open, as if wants to ask a question but doesn’t know how to phrase it. In the back of his mind, he’s thankful that his outfit from the Origin SMP didn’t cross over, because then Dream would be staring at that too, and he can only take so much. Techno awkwardly laughs, and it’s a cut-short thing, but Dream’s eyes shoot down to meet Techno’s anyway.
“Uh- trying out a new look, Techno?” Dream’s voice was teasing, but also curious, like he genuinely wanted to know but didn't want to show it. Techno glared anyway, pushing the blond forward a step before shutting his front door behind him, striding towards their sparring grounds and trusting Dream to follow him. His bunny ears, even though they’re covered and hurting faintly, still clearly registered Dream’s footsteps behind him.
The two of them reach the sparring grounds quicker than Techno would’ve hoped, and the pinkette gets into a defensive position before Dream could say another word, because then Techno would be distracted by the man’s voice, and laugh, and freckles, and eyes, and-
The point is, Techno doesn’t want to stall, and he wants to take Dream down quickly so he can figure out how the hell he’s going to fix the problem that's manifested itself in the form of a pair of bunny ears and, as Techno will reluctantly admit, a fluffy bunny tail. Dream seems to take the bait easily, smirking before gripping the handle of his axe once, rolling his shoulders, and then attacking.
As most sparring sessions with Dream usually go, Techno enjoyed it maybe a bit too much.
All thoughts of his bunny-problem flew out the window, leaving behind a pleasant silenceーeven the voices taking a backseat to watch the show. Techno has finally come to terms with the fact that someーif not mostーof his happiest moments were spent sparring with Dream, and this time is unsurprisingly no different. The two were just balanced, and fighting with someone who could keep up with you is fun, and even when Techno lost, he never left a sparring match without a smile on his face, and he doubts he ever will.
As per usual, their "sparring session" translates to “one long round without breaks because they’re both stubborn,” and just when Techno can start to feel his legs aching from exhaustion and the small cuts littering the exposed skin of his forearms start to sting, a gasp is heard, before Dream is dropping his weapon and backing away a step, staring at Techno with wide eyes.
The pinkette doesn’t understand at firstーwhy would Dream just quit mid-fight? The only time something like this has happened is when either Dream or Techno got injured past a point of ignoringーthe only exception being when Techno accidentally broke Dream’s maskー, but Techno feels fine besides the soreness in his legs, and Dream, on the surface at least, looks relatively unharmed, so what gives?
Techno lowers his sword and stares back at Dream with a furrowed brow, trying to figure out why Dream stopped fighting. The man’s expression betrays nothing, his eyes widened and his jaw slack, staring up at Techno as if he’s just as confusedーand in awe? Is that what he’s seeing?ーas Techno. The pinkette’s ears flick, as if he could figure out what-
Wait.
Oh, shit.
Techno completely drops his weapon, both of his hands rising up to try to cover the long pink ears on top of his head, the beanie nowhere to be foundーwell, as Techno quickly glanced around, he found it laying, sliced in half, on the ground. Techno could feel his face heating up, and he flattened the ears on his head, trying to hide them from Dream. It’s not that he’s embarrassed, per say, but Dream’s here, and he’s staring at him, so Techno can safely say he’s a little nervous about what the man thinks of his new… body part.
“Techno? What, um- you got, uh… bunny ears…?” Dream sounds so hesitant, and when Techno peeks up to look at his face again, he finds a cute blush sitting high on the man’s cheeks, and his mouth finally closed, his eyes no-less-wide, however. At least he doesn’t look uncomfortable, that’s a start.
“Yeah, they, um… there was a glitch with the portals.” Blood God, Techno’s too awkward for this. Someone please come either take him out of his misery or teach him how to talk to attractive peopleーhe’s never had this problem before, talking to Dream was almost as natural as breathing, but now everything feels so… weird, and Techno doesn’t know what to make of it. He’s once again thankful that his tail isn’t on display, because that would only serve to make things twenty times more awkward than they already are.
“They’re… cute.” Dream’s voice sounded much closer than before, and when Techno broke his stare-down with the tree to the right of him, he found Dream standing only a foot in front of him, the blush still on his face. This close up, Techno could see the freckles he’s so enamored with, and against his will, his tail starts wagging.
This is so embarrassing.
Before Techno can say anything else, there’s a hand touching his ears, and despite what he’s seen other bunnies do, and despite what he himself has done when other people have dared to touch his ears, he melts into the touch. The effect is instantaneousーhis ears relax into Dream’s hand, which is slowly petting the fur-covered appendages, ruby eyes go half-lidded, and broad shoulders un-tense immediately.
Techno wants to be embarrassed about how easily he was subdued by Dream petting him, but for some reason it feels so nice, and he’s positive that it has to do with the fact that it’s Dream touching his ears, instead of Wilbur, who is always trying to annoy him on the Origin SMP. Chat is still blessedly quietーor, maybe Techno’s just so relaxed that he tuned them out, and the only sound in the clearing the two are standing in is their breathing and the sound of something ruffling against fabric (that Techno subconsciously realizes is his tail trapped in his pants).
The petting continues for a moment longer before Dream draws his hand away, and Techno whimpers, because he is a pathetic simp, and also because Dream has really nice hands. When Techno opened his eyesーwhen did they ever fully close?ーhe found Dream’s gaze locked on Techno’s own, emerald meeting ruby as both of them waited (for what? Techno doesn’t know).
“You said it was a portal glitch, right?” Techno nods, and it feels dazed, like he just woke up from some quick nap standing up. Dream smiled at him, and moved closer, bringing a hand back up to Techno’s head, only hovering near his ears instead of touching them again, something Techno wanted to complain about, but didn’t out of saving his own pride. “Well, I can help you with that, or…” Techno felt his ears perk up at Dream’s last word, watching the man smile shyly at the action, “I can keep doing this,” Dream brought his hand down to finally touch Techno’s ears again, and the pinkette resisted the effects of it, so he could actually hear what the man has to say, “for a little while.”
“Yes!” Techno cringes immediately after practically screaming that, his voice eager, loud, and entirely unlike him. Dream didn’t seem to mind, fortunately, and only smiled at him again before finally going back to petting Techno’s ears, the man instantly relaxing.
“You’re just a big softie, aren’t you, Techno?” Dream’s voice was fond, and his hand worked like he had done this a million times, and combined with the warmth radiating off of him, and the smile on his face that Techno can barely see through half-lidded ruby eyes, it caused Techno to purr ーhe didn’t even know bunnies could purr! What the hell?! This is turning into a self-exploration day, and Techno’s not sure how to feel about it.
The purring is loud, and sounds vaguely like a chitter, but it caused Dream to laugh, and it only made Techno happier, so he didn't try to stop it. The two stand there for a handful of moments, Techno basking in the affection and Dream willingly handing it out, with only Techno’s purrs filling the clearing. Just as Techno’s eyes closeーand he registers faintly that he can’t fall asleep because Dream is giving him affection, and he can’t pass this upーthe aforementioned man leans closer, and places a soft kiss on Techno’s forehead, that caused the man to almost fall over in his effort to chase it.
Then, Dream was whispering to him, and Techno reluctantly stopped purring so he could listen to the blond, clamming up slightly at the feeling of breath hitting his ear. “How about we move somewhere more… comfortable?”
And that’s how Techno found himself spending an entire day laying in Dream’s bed (because he apparently does have a house), with his head on a vibrating chest as Dream talked about who-and-whatever, while a hand softly scratched his ears, and purrs provided background noise.
… He doesn’t get the portal glitch fixed for a week, but he also gained a lover, so he isn’t exactly complaining.