Work Text:
Three Weeks Ago
Two figures sprinted across the hallway, barely visible in the dim emergency lighting of the shuttered office building. As they rounded the corner, alarms started to blare in the server room.
In the security center, several floors up, a pair of guards snapped to attention. One lunged for a radio, only to find the channels choked with static. After a few fruitless attempts as unscrambling the signal, he tossed it aside in frustration. Meanwhile, the other eyed the cameras, calculating the quickest route to cutting off the intruders. Within a few seconds, the security detail was thundering down the stairs.
A few floors above ground level, the intruders were gaining speed. The two groups collided in the hallway just outside the fire escape the thieves were angling to use as a getaway. As the intruders dived for the door, one of the guards fired his pistol. The taller thief stumbled and grunted, but his partner hauled him forward. They closed the gap, speeding over the few feet remaining between them and freedom.
As the interlopers crashed through the emergency exit, the fire alarm started shrieking, joining the security alarms in a growing cacophany. Just as the guards reached the door, it closed with a resounding slam. They hauled it back open, but there was no sign of the intruders in the pitch-dark outside.
Present Day
Dream whistled quietly as he walked down the hall, trying not to wake his temporary roommate. A quick glance through the living room doorway on his way into the kitchen revealed that Techno was still situated comfortably on the couch. Whether he was sleeping or just unwilling to move was debatable, but at least he wasn't trying to escape bedrest again.
As he fired up the stove and started making breakfast, Dream contemplated their current status. The most recent heist had been mostly successful-in that they had retrieved some very useful information, not to mention destabilizing their target's sense of security-but it had been less so in the goal of everyone coming home in one piece.
Unfortunately, due to some last-minute improvising, Dream had skinned his hands badly making it inside, and Techno had taken a bullet in the calf on the way out, when the security team had a quicker response time than expected. It had been a clean shot, easy to remove, but he was still laid up for the time being, unable to move around easily.
Dream had cajoled his partner in crime into staying with him through a combination of the promise of food, the threat of keeping him out of the next job, and a slight guilt-trip, that he was worried and wanted to keep an eye on him.
Dream had maybe laid it on a little thick, but Techno was predisposed to view him as a younger sibling and he had caved embarrassingly fast. Unfortunately, he had taken to forced medical leave extremely poorly, and was alternating between ludicrous escape attempts (which, due to the many stairs between him and anything, didn't go so well) and acting like he was dying (this came with increasingly ridiculous revisions to his last will and testament).
Dream was beginning to deeply, deeply regret his bout of responsibility.
The sizzle of cooking hashbrowns created a nice counterpoint to Dream's racing mind, and soon enough the scent of food had permeated the kitchen. Whether or not he had already been conscious, Techno was quick to start rustling around once he smelled breakfast. Dream collected himself, tossed the food onto a pair of plates and traipsed out to the living room.
"Soups on!"
"Gimme," Techno made grabby hands at the plate, then added "wait, this isn't soup," with a completely straight face.
"You are such an idiot. Here."
Dream dumped the plate into Techno's lap (carefully, obviously. If he spilled hot breakfast all over his injured friend he would probably get an earful from several parties. And feel bad about it), then wedged himself onto the couch beside him.
Technoblade refused to move from the center of the couch in the slightest, meaning that Dream was sort of awkwardly smushed into the corner even though the couch was meant to fit three people who were decently friendly with each other. This was a normal consequence of trying to join Techno on any piece of furniture he had gotten to first.
They ate in silence for a minute, only punctuated by the sounds of birds outside. It was early spring, so they were in full force. Dream caught Techno peering out the window and knew he was probably missing his gaggle of chickens. They were back at Techno's house, outside the city, being looked after by his friend Nikki. It was a bit of a trip from Dream's apartment, so they hadn't been able to get out there for a while. Nikki also wasn't fully in the loop about what her neighbor did for a living, so Techno was softbanned from talking to her until he no longer had a bullet wound.
It was pretty early in the AM for a deep conversation, so Dream kept his eyes focused on the TV across the room as he asked, "You doing alright?" In his peripheral, Techno slumped in exaggerated thought.
"I guess so. I'm glad I won't be trapped here forever staring at your terrible decor-"
"-hey-"
"-but I'm mostly just pissed that I managed to get injured in the first place. And now I'm laid up here, mooching off you and Nikki, not doing anything. It doesn't even have to be work! I just hate layin' around."
The unexpected honesty sent Dream for a loop for a minute, and he took a big bite of breakfast, chewing slowly to give himself time to think.
"I'm…yeah, I'm really sorry you got hit. You did a good job, we got the stuff, you just had bad luck, and that sucks. I hope you know-I don't think you're mooching off me. It's been kind of fun having you around, except for all the escape attempts. Those are embarrassing."
Techno rolled his eyes. "Like you didn't do the exact same thing when you broke your shoulder."
"Yeah but when I broke my shoulder I could still walk, dumbass. Whatever. I mean, you're my friend. I like hanging out with you. If you need something to do we can find some books or whatever. I don't have another job lined up yet but I could see if there's any research needing done-"
"Can I get some textbooks on interior design? I have ideas."
"Technoblade I am trying to be helpful."
"Okay okay, sorry, jeez. Your house isn't that bad."
Dream sighed. Techno sounded genuinely contrite, and to be fair, it was a pretyy boring room to be stuck in for more than a couple days.
"If you plan anything that'll lose me my deposit, I'm not doing it."
"Lets goooooooo!"