Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You’re an idiot,” Dream wheezed, “you’re such an idiot.” 

Techno was in front of him laughing as well. They were supposed to be training together for the time being, and then helping train the younger heros later. However, they had spent the entire last half hour goofing around instead of actually doing anything productive.

“No but think about it, you can make like ten Technoblades,” the man in front of him laughed, “that would be epic.”

Dream wheezed again. He closed his eyes and focused his powers in front of them. He felt it buzzing through his veins and when he opened his eyes next there were multiple Technoblade’s standing in front of them. 

Techno cackled loudly and Dream followed. The illusion fell around them and Dream shook his head. 

“See that was awesome,” Techno exclaimed while still laughing. Dream was still giggling and he scoffed fondly. 

“I can hardly deal with one of you. Ten would be too many,” He joked, watching the way Techno gasped. He could see the mock offense on his face and Dream wiped his eyes. 

“At least I’m not homeless,” Techno threw his hands into the air, rolling his eyes at Dream, “it could always be worse, green teletubby.” Dream sighed as Techno brought up the age old joke. This had started ages ago now. 

There was like a week period where Dream had to stay with Bad in his house when he was switching apartments. He had lived by himself from the age of fifteen to twenty one. Then around when he had started to date George and Sapnap, the three of them got an apartment together. 

There was a week that his rent for the old apartment ran out and his landlord kicked him out, but the new apartment was not ready yet. He had crashed at Bad’s house at that time, yet Techno had never let go of it. 

It had almost been two years now, and Techno would still bring it up.

Dream sighed groaning into his hands, wiping away the tears that were there from laughing so hard. 

“I’m not homeless,” he protested, still laughing slightly. Techno was grinning at him and Dream lightly shoved the other back. 

“Be careful or I’m going to start manifesting Technoblades in maid dresses,” Dream laughed, wiggling his hands threateningly. Techno whipped his head to look at him, eyes narrowing.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he gasped.

“Try me,” Dream grinned back. He only had about a second before Techno was coming at him with a staff that they had out for ‘training.’ Dream jumped back laughing, grabbing his own before blocking the hit.

They fell into the familiar rhythm of striking and blocking. The same footwork that they had practiced time and time again was muscle memory by now. 

Strike after strike. Block after block. It was an easy routine. One that was calming to the two of them. 

They went back and forth until they heard footsteps outside the door. They had stopped to see Tommy and Tubbo walking into the room. The two of them looked slightly nervous about interrupting whatever was going on. 

Dream wiped the layer of sweat that had formed on his forehead off, taking a deep breath and looking at the younger hero’s. They both certainly liked Techno more than him, but it was fine. He never really cared about it.

“The Blade, Big D, what's up,” Tommy said obnoxiously and Dream sighed. 

“Don’t call me that,” he muttered, turning to Techno with an unimpressed look on his face. The other gave him a look back and Dream huffed. Tommy laughed and Dream shook his head.

They got into the training soon after that. They worked with both powers, and non powers. The kids were doing good, Dream had no problem admitting it. They still have a lot more work to be done before they can actually make their debut as Heros and shit, but they were well on their way. 

It was about halfway through their training session when someone burst through the door, panting. Dream immediately whipped around, taking a step in front of the kids in case it was a problem. The person looked up at them. 

“Blade, Smiler, the league requires you for a mission,” the man’s voice was high pitched. Dream didn’t recognize the person. He shared a small look with Techno.

“Who are you?” Dream asked. The man looked up and down the hallway nervously and Dream felt the suspicion wrack through his chest. Something felt off. There was something not right about this. 

“Umm, new hire,” the man stuttered, “come quickly!” Dream could see the way he was shaking and sweating. This was a set up if he ever had seen one. 

He shared another glance at Techno. Dream pulled his mask over his face. It had been resting on the side of his head during training. Techno did the same with his own. 

“We’re gonna have to ask you to leave,” Techno hummed, looking at the man in front of them and then down to the staff that was still in his hands, “it’s not safe to be running around with younger hero’s around.” 

Dream let his powers glow around him threateningly. The man’s eyes darkened drastically. He sighed.

“Very well then.” 

Dream was confused at first, as the man just watched them still. He heard something behind them.

“Smiler!” He heard Tommy yell in warning. He didn’t have time to turn around before a heavy metal rod collided with the back of his skull. The force sent him forward into the floor, knocking him out before he even hit the ground.

______________

The first thing Dream noticed was how much his head was pounding when he came back into consciousness. He immediately groaned at the feeling. It felt like someone was knocking on his skull over and over. 

The next thing he noticed was how tight the space he was in. His eyes whipped open, but it was dark all around him. On his left was a hard metal wall of some sort. One his right was what felt like another body. He was laying on his back.

Dream tried to sit up, panicking slightly, but his forehead instantly connected with the roof of whatever he was stuck in. Dream yelped in pain. Fuck that wasn’t helpful. His head was pounding more now. He groaned again. 

Okay. So he was stuck. He was stuck without being able to move. Dream could feel his breathing slightly picking up inside his chest. His heart pounding against his ribs in his chest. 

He needed to figure out where he was. That was step one. He couldn’t really see anything. It was pitch black all around him. He tried to feel around with his hands. The walls were metal and so was the roof. He tried to push against the roof, but it was completely stuck. That wasn’t great. 

He felt the person next to him. 

The darker part in his head was telling him it could be a dead body. He tried not to think about that though. The last thing he needed was a full on panic attack wherever this was. 

He felt around the person and eventually over their face. He heard a familiar groaning beside him. Okay they weren’t dead. That was good at least. 

“What the hell?” The person whispered. They were beginning to feel around their own surroundings.

“Don’t sit up,” Dream said quickly, trying to avoid the person doing the same thing he did. The movement beside him stopped and he faintly saw their head tilt towards him.

“Dream?” Then it clicked who it was.

“Techno?” 

“Yep,” the older one sounded out of it still. Dream shifted slightly, not liking the right space that they were in. 

“Where are we?” Techno asked him slowly. Dream looked around again, even though it was still dark around them. 

 “No clue,” Dream admitted, “do you have a flashlight?” Techno shifted around a bit and Dream cringed at the way he pushed him into the wall. Techno winced apologetically.

“Not much space we have here,” Techno commented.

“Nope,” Dream answered. The shifting only continued for a second more before Dream found what he was looking for. 

“I do have a flashlight actually,” Techno hummed, clicking it on. The initial flash made Dream blink his eyes shut. He was finally able to make out the space around them. 

It was extremely confined. Almost as if they were trapped in a metal box. Dream felt alarm bells going off in his head as he tried not to panic. It obviously wasn’t helping much, because his heart rate was drastically speeding up in his chest. 

“Oh would you look at that,” Dream looked over to what Techno was talking about. Above them, stuck to the roof was a sharpied on message. 

Just killing you the biggest pains in the city isn’t fun enough!
Enjoy rotting for the rest of eternity! Well, at least until you slowly die!   People buried alive don't last that long after all!                                              It was a pleasure knowing you!           Just kidding

• :]

Dream felt his blood run cold. Techno was saying something, but he couldn’t make it out. His chest was tightening inside of him, as if someone was squeezing it. Each breath he took was more shallow than the last. Each inhale was a struggle against the invisible weight pushing down on him.

His heart was pounding. It felt like it would burst out of his ribcage. Dream could feel sweat beading onto his forehead and starting to stick his uniform to his body. His hands were beginning to shake as well, fingers trembling as if he was freezing.

The walls were closing in around him and his vision was blurring. Whether it was from the light headedness, or the hot tears that were forming in his eyes, he didn’t know. 

He sucked in panicked breaths. There wasn’t enough air around him. He wasn’t getting any air. His breaths quickened, but the air still wasn’t getting into his lungs.

Dream’s stomach twisted violently, nausea rising within him. He held back a gag. Panic was clawing at his mind. Irrational terror was swimming through him at an alarming rate.

He couldn’t stop it. His body wasn’t listening to him. His thoughts were racing too fast, spinning out of control in his head.

Suddenly things went black all around him. Dream gasped. He could feel hot tears running down his face. The light turns back on and Dream sees Techno beside him trying to get into his vision. 

Dream looks at the other and Techno’s mouth is moving. Dream strains his body to listen.

“-ey, Dream, you’ve gotta breathe,” Techno said carefully, “you’ve gotta breathe.”

Dream shook his head, “can’t.”

It was gasped out and Dream coughed. 

“Hey, can I touch you?” Techno whispered softly. Dream nodded. Techno slipped his hand into Dream’s and squeezed it softly. 

“Look I’m right here buddy,” Techno reassured him, “you’re okay. I’m right here.” 

Dream nodded again, blinking the tears out of his eyes to clear his vision slightly.

“Okay, I need you to take a slow breath with me. In through your nose, out through your mouth.” 

Dream followed Techno’s instructions. He sucked in a large breath of air and pushed it out slowly. He still felt dizzy. 

“There you go,” Techno squeezed his hand again, “keep doing that. Close your eyes if it’s easier. I’m right here Smiles.” 

Dream let his eyes slip shut. It helped to reduce the dizziness that he was feeling. He kept taking deep breaths in and out. Slowly, things came back to him. He kept his eyes closed until he felt sure that he could open them again without freaking out. 

He blinked his eyes back open and saw Techno looking at him with worry. Dream instantly felt guilt flood through his chest. 

“Sorry,” he muttered, looking away from the other. Techno shook his head. 

“No sorry’s,” he scolded softly, “it’s okay buddy. I- I’m scared too.” 

Dream heard the fear leak into what Techno said. He took another deep breath, squeezing Techno’s hand again. 

“You want me to let go?” Techno asked him. Dream thought about it for a second.

“No it’s fine,” he said quickly, “it’s grounding.” He admitted quietly. Techno nodded.

“You want the light on or off?” Techno then asked him. Dream felt another wave of guilt pass through him. He wasn’t helpless. He was an adult. He could handle this.

“You don’t have to, y’know?” Dream tried to explain. When Techno looked at him with a blank stare Dream sighed. “On is better.” 

The light stayed on. 

They sat in silence for a bit after that. Neither of them really had any better ideas. Dream just kept taking slow deep breaths to help himself from falling into another panic.

It was another maybe five minutes before Techno spoke. 

“Do you have any ideas to get out of here? Cause this really isn’t good,” Techno deadpanned. Dream shifted slightly, pushing his body into Techno’s slightly. The older didn’t comment on it. 

“N- no,” his voice was still shaky, “not at all.” Techno huffed and Dream watched him look around. 

“How long do we have until we die?” Dream asked. He didn’t really want to know. However, it would be nice to figure out how long they have to be saved before it’s too late. 

“Well, that depends on how deep we are I guess. Typically, I guess we would have the chance to live for about two hours maybe before the oxygen levels drop to where we start to pass out. However, because of your panic attack we lost a lot of the available oxygen that we had in here-“ 

Dream opened his mouth-

“Not your fault. But anyways, due to that and the fact that I don’t know how long we’ve actually been down here and there’s probably a lot of CO2 in here now. Ummm… maybe 30ish minutes?” 

Dream sighed, closing his eyes. He wasn’t expecting anything much better than that, but it was also hard to hear. 

“And we have no ideas to help us get out?” Dream asked again. 

“Nope,” Techno muttered.

“Fantastic.” 

Dream kept his eyes closed. 

“Did you at least write a will?”

“Shut the fuck up your wasting oxygen.” 

Techno chuckled lightly. 

Dream rolled his eyes. He breathed in and out again. No need to panic. They were gonna be fine. It would be fine.

I’m in denial.

Dream shifted again. He was stressing. He was stressing bad. He breathed out.

He began picking at his thumb. Breathe in. 

His feet were tapping against the bottom of the box. He kicked his legs back and forth. 

Anything to get his mind off the situation at hand. Also just because he couldn’t sit still. Like ever. He puffed out another breath. 

He kicked his foot again and this time it landed on Techno’s as it came down. The other winced slightly and pulled his leg back.

“Sorry,” Dream muttered, trying to still his movements. 

“You’re good,” Techno shifted, “you’re not the only one here with adhd Dream.” Dream nodded and smiled slightly. Techno of all people would understand at least a little, so that was good. “I just actually take my medicine.”

Dream rolled his eyes. 

“Do you think we’re actually going to die?” Dream asked quietly, going back to softly kicking his feet. 

“I want to say no, but there’s a chance we do,” Techno sighed, “if we’re being honest.” Dream nodded and he was sure Techno saw it.

He didn’t want to die. He really didn’t want to die. He took a deep breath. 

Happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.

Dream wasn’t sure how long they laid lime that. It was long enough that his head started to hurt from the slow decrease of oxygen. It was long enough that both of them had tried to mentally accept that they were going to die here.

Techno’s hand had eventually found his own again, searching for comfort. Techno was his best friend, so Dream didn’t hesitate giving it. 

Eventually Dream let his eyes slip shut. He tried to take small breaths, conserving oxygen. They were going to die here. They were actually going to-

There was a bang above them. 

Both of them flinched, looking at each other. They heard muffled voices above them. 

Instantly Dream began banging on the roof of the box. Techno followed quickly behind him. They were making as much noise as possible, both screaming, and hitting the top with their hands in feet.

Dream winced as one of his knuckles split. They heard more yelling above him, and the banging progressively got louder and closer. 

“Stop yelling, we need the oxygen,” Techno hummed, “they found us.” Dream sunk back into his back in relief. His head was still pounding, but at least now he knew he wasn’t going to die. 

“We’re gonna be okay,” Dream gasped quietly, laughing a little. Techno laughed slightly beside him. 

“Yeah, we are buddy,” Techno smiled. 

It was only a couple of minutes before the sound of the shovel had reached them all the way. There were voices again and Dream recognized both Sapnap and George. He also heard Philza and what sounded like Bad. 

The box was being pried open and Dream saw a split of moonlight shine in through the crack. The roof was pulled up and both Dream and Techno gasped in actual air for what felt like the first time in forever. 

“Holy fuck you are both alive,” George gasped out. Both him and Sapnap were covered head to toe in dirt. 

Dream moved to stand up, body sore from being cramped. He got to his feet and instantly stumbled, dizziness passing through him. Sapnap caught him and Dream leaned against him. 

“Woah careful,” Bad scolded, helping Phil get Techno up, “you guys lost a lot of oxygen.” 

Dream nodded slightly, his head still on Sapnap's shoulder. 

“Cmon, let's get you guys out of here.”

George and Bad climbed out of the hole first, staying at the top to help pull them up. Sapnap helped him reach for the top of the dirt. He pulled himself up, struggling slightly. Sapnap pushed him upwards by the ass.

“Get your hands off my ass, I almost died,” Dream joked. He heard Sapnap scoff below him. 

“Gross,” Techno complained, “Quit flirting in front of everyone.” 

Dream rolled his eyes, pulling himself completely out. Sapnap followed quickly behind him. Dream sighed as he finally got out of the ground. He rolled onto his back and gasped, glady taking in the air. 

George got down beside him and pulled him into a hug.

“Don’t fucking do that again,” he squeezed his arms around Dream, “you scared me.” 

Sapnap found his way into the hug on the other side and Dream sighed, happy to be safe in their arms again.

“I will avoid being buried alive again,” Dream mumbled into George’s neck, laughing slightly. George grumbled at him.

They stood up again and Sapnap helped him to his feet. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the wave of dizziness pass. He looked back at the hole once he opened his eyes.

“We weren’t down there that deep,” Techno commented, “I honestly thought it was worse than that.” 

“It was bad enough,” Dream huffed. 

Sapnap nodded his head. 

“C’mon we’re going home, I’m tired,” Sapnap said with a yawn, grabbing both his and George’s hands and pulling them to where Dream guessed the car was parked. 

“How did you find us?” Dream wondered aloud. 

“Tracker,” George grinned at him. Dream’s eyes widened. 

“You put a tracker on m-“

“Wouldn’t the signal be cut out?” Techno asked.

“Yeah, but I can still find it because I’m special,” George laughed, hand slightly glowing blue as he showed off his powers.

“Dang, I would have been screwed without teletubby here,” Techno commented. Geroge nodded.

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’, “okay I’m tired we’re going home.” He started pulling the three of them away again. Dream’s mouth was still hanging open.

“You put a tracker on me?”

“Bye guys!” Sapnap yelled as the others checked up on Techno again. 

They got to the car and Sapnap climbed into the driver's seat. Leaving Dream and George in the back together. 

George climbed across the seat leaving space for Dream to lay down slightly. Dream did, putting his head in George’s lap. George brushed his fingers through Dream’s hair. 

Dream could feel exhaustion curling through him. He yawned. 

“You put a tracker on me?” 

“Go to sleep, Dreamie,” George whispered, placing a small kiss on his head. 

Dream rolled his eyes.

And he slept.