Chapter Text
Technoblade growls at his brother’s response. His brother has to submit to him. “Submit to me, Wilbur,” Techno says as he shoves his brother into their room, locking the door behind them.
“No, you submit to me, Technoblade,” Wilbur snarls. Techno grabs his brother’s arm. “Submit!” Wilbur kicks Techno’s legs out from under him. Techno shoves back and forces Wilbur backward.
“No, you submit!”
And so, it begins, a tumbling of limbs and snarls. Neither giving in to the other. Finally, they rest in their nest, both heaving big breaths and sweat clinging to their brows. “Can’t we be equals, like before?” Wilbur asks, coughing once. Techno looks to his brother, deep in the chocolate brown eyes that Phil says Wilbur got from their mother.
“Maybe, see how our instincts like it I spose,” Techno huffs, clearing his throat.
Twinsduooooo
yessssss
We. love. Twinsduooooo
WHOOP WHOOP
Wilbur dum
Techno dum
Both dum
Stop it they’re not dumb
Yes they are
No they’re not!
Yes
No
And so, the voices devolve into a shouting match that isn’t silenced as Wilbur and Techno continue with their conversation. “So, Techno,” Wilbur winces at a particularly nasty scream from the voices, “I know where Phil keeps those pills. If we want to use them, I can go get them?” Techno flinches.
That was so embarrassing , the time he’d gotten what is deemed between the older three of the house as the “Techno treatment”. Techno had been so worried about Tommy that he’d neglected to take care of himself. His instincts screaming that he needed to track down his runt, while also screaming that his caretaker needed to take care of him. He remembers wandering around the house waiting for a reason to go search for Tommy, a clue, a lead, anything.
Phil must’ve told the police that he’d go directly to them because they never came to the house. Probably for good reason too. If Techno had gotten even the slightest hint of where Tommy was, he would’ve been searching 24/7 until he found their runt.
He knows Wilbur would’ve done the same.
Wilbur wasn’t supposed to be a brute like him, but due to some really bad timing, a.k.a. the day he got his role in the sounder was when Techno had been in Phil’s room getting the “Techno treatment”. Phil had been with Techno, and that was coincidentally the time that someone tried to break into the house again.
Wilbur had done a good job of defending them, but his body wasn’t quite made to handle the stress of suddenly growing into-
Techno stops. That’s why Wilbur’s been cranky.
When Techno had gotten the “Techno treatment” his tusks and his tail had gone through a very sudden growth spurt and he’d refused to submit to Phil. Techno doesn’t know what to do in this situation.
Wilbur finally feels safe enough to become a brute, Techno had done it years ago while Tommy had been missing and everyone was terrified of the news that the next day could bring.
Techno remembers having spent every waking moment worrying about his runt, his baby brother. He remembers lying awake at night, wondering if his golden runt was okay. If he was still alive at that point. Techno remembers watching Wilbur sleep, just to make sure his brother was still there.
He also remembers desperately wanting to snuggle into his twin’s embrace. But he refused to. Maybe if he hadn’t, if he’d just gotten off his high horse and let his twin unconsciously embrace him, they wouldn’t be here right now, snarling at one another to submit. Techno thinks he knows how this will end, and he’s not sure that either of their instincts will be happy with it for long.
Sounders have a main brute, but Techno and Wilbur have always been equals. Equally dumb or smart, they’ve been equals. Where one lacks, the other makes up for it. Techno, admittedly, is only extremely good at a few things, his love of the English language and interpreting how an audience will react to a literary masterpiece has always been one of his favorite things. As well as a variety of other, more physical sports like judo and football. His brute side of him had always liked tackling people, however, sometimes he got a bit out of hand. But his brother was always right there for him. Wilbur had been everywhere that Techno had been.
“Submit, Techno,” Wilbur says, shoving Techno’s face into the floor. Techno growls and spins around, they wrestle on the floor of Techno’s– their room for a bit longer before Techno’s pins Wilbur.
“Submit, Wilbur,” Techno mocks.
Wilbur growls, “Submit-submit-frustration-want-Techno-submit.”
“No. You submit.” Wilbur bucks Techno off and Techno growls, his instincts taking over his mind and before he knows it, he has Wilbur pinned to the ground and has his jaw locked on his twin’s shoulder. Techno winces as he feels Wilbur’s jaw locking similarly onto Techno’s shoulder. They growl at each other, neither giving up.
They sit there on the floor for a while, Techno doesn’t really know how long, letting go is a sign of submittance, and holding on too long will get them both forcibly taken apart by Phil and Tommy when the two get back. Techno growls when Wilbur bites tentatively harder, seeing if a bit more pain would cause Techno to let go.
Techno was never one for subtlety. Techno bites harder on Wilbur’s shoulder and the other whines in pain. Techno whimpers. He didn’t really want to hurt Wilbur, but he wasn’t listening. They remain like that for a long time, the other subtly (or not so subtly in Techno’s case) biting harder on the other’s shoulder.
Finally, Techno can’t take it anymore and he pulls away. At the same time as Wilbur. They both sit there in the dark - when did it become dark?- huffing short, pained breaths. Phil is so going to kill them. Techno looks up at his twin, sweat beads on his brow and his eyes are unfocused. “Wil?” Techno calls, “Truce?” Wilbur stares at him and nods. Techno helps his brother stand up -as if they both aren’t just pulling on the other with the excuse of helping their brother up.
“Tech? What happens now?” Wilbur asks as they stand there, trying to get their bearings after that… fight. Techno still can’t believe he actually fought with his brother.
“I- I don’t know. My instincts are confused, I’m confused,” Techno admits, resting his forehead on his brother’s shoulder. He jerks away when his brother whines. “Sorry, I forgot. Let’s uhm, get the first aid kit, yeah?”
“We’re dead meat, Techno,” Wilbur says as they walk down the hallway to the bathroom. Techno nods solemnly.
“He’s going to rip us apart.”
“Wait,” Wilbur stops right outside the bathroom door and Techno turns around. “What were the other options that Phil mentioned?” Techno’s face turns red.
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” Techno looks away. He’s embarrassed , okay? He’s allowed to be embarrassed by being treated like a little shote as a fifteen-year-old. And as a twenty-two-year-old.
Phil just makes a habit of embarrassing Techno, doesn’t he?
“No, tell me,” Wilbur begs, grabbing Techno’s arm and tugging. With too much strength though, because Techno winces at the pain. “Oh. Sorry.” Wilbur looks up at Techno and Techno can see the larger tusks, the red circling his twin’s cocoa brown irises, the thicker tail that sways behind him. He really has become a brute like Techno, hasn’t he?
“It’s fine.” Techno turns back to the bathroom and opens the mirror doors, he chuckles at the cracks in it, remembering when Tommy had punched it so that he could see how to open it. Phil had never been more proud of having a bird son.
Techno always found hybrid genetics to be a funny thing. You either were or you weren’t. Or that’s how it was explained to him. If there’s even a drop of hybridity in your blood, there’s always a chance. Their mother had apparently been a piglin, as piglin as a hybrid can get, so Phil says, and Phil himself was an avian.
The way it was explained to Techno is that the two had known that their children would be hybrids, just not what kind. Techno remembers Phil telling the story of how their mother had demanded not to know what kind of hybrid they were until they were born. Techno and Wilbur were piglins, while Tommy was an avian.
Techno doesn’t know what happened to their mother, but Phil always gets this sour, sad look on his face whenever they try to ask. Then the man gets sucked into his instincts and then they’re dragged into the nest. The three brothers have just stopped asking since they couldn’t really bring themselves to care about a mother they’ve never known.
Techno pulls out the cream that their dad keeps for them, since piglin hybrids don’t like to use bandages anywhere visible for some reason. Techno just remembers the feeling of being so claustrophobic that he wanted to cut his arm off that one time he’d scraped it up and being so upset and angry that his dad wouldn’t let him.
Ever since then, they’ve used the cream. Techno gently applies it to Wilbur’s skin, cautiously letting the other apply some to Techno’s skin. Techno and Wilbur hiss at the same time as the binding agents in the cream begin to kick in. That’s the thing about the cream, it has to act like a bandage, and yet, feel nothing like it. Something about piglins not having bandages in the Netherrack realm of Warthogs or something, Techno hadn’t paid attention during that history lesson very much. Mostly because it was boring . He liked the Greek and Roman mythology courses ten times more.
Sure, he hadn’t learned as much from them, but they were still fun and exciting, unlike learning about the Roman times and all the horrible and evil crap they did back then to Christians and people and animals and whatnot. Techno hated that class so much, he’d demanded that Phil let him be homeschooled in history class.
He hadn’t gotten his wish because Phil had to work, but still.
“Techno? Can we just go to the den?” Wilbur asks. Techno looks up at his brother. His instincts are both terrified and in awe of Wilbur. He doesn’t really understand what’s happening, but he loves his brother much more than his instincts do, so he’s just going to ignore them.
Nothing bad has ever come of that.
“Sure, nerd,” Techno smirks as he adds, “Clingy.” Wilbur huffs but grabs Techno’s uninjured arm. Techno chuffs fondly and Wilbur responds in like. “Do you think-” Wilbur cuts himself off as Techno opens their den door.
“Think what, Wil?” Techno asks, looking over at Wilbur. Wilbur and him had always been close. Twins tend to be that way, even if they don’t like each other. After all, they’ve known each other since birth and before that technically. Although, people argue about infancy amnesia or whatever it’s called. Techno could care less. Techno has known his twin longer than anyone else on this earth has and that’s that.
“Do you think that we’ll try it again? What if I hurt you worse next time?” Wilbur looks at Techno with tears in his eyes and Techno hesitates. On one hand, his instincts wouldn’t allow him to submit to Wilbur, but on the other hand, they also hate seeing Wilbur like this.
“I don’t think you’ll hurt me worse than you think you have to,” Techno says hesitantly, “To be honest, Wil, I- I’m scared of hurting you too. But,” Techno stops and grabs Wilbur’s chin. “I love you too much to let you hurt yourself.” Techno’s instincts rise up at the possessive act. Techno tries to shove them down but he finds himself growling when something clicks on his wrist. A chain. Of course that’s something Wilbur would think of.
“I can’t let you hurt yourself either, brother,” Wilbur says, moving Techno’s hand off his chin and holding it. Techno lunges and grabs a nearby chain. Wilbur tries to dart away, but he’s not fast enough to escape Techno latching it around his ankle.
“You’re not leaving me, Wilbur, I don’t care if we have to sit here until Dad gets back, you’re not leaving.” Techno growls. Distantly, he wonders how his instincts went from wanting Wilbur to submit to not caring about that anymore.
“Well, you’re not leaving me either,” Wilbur tugs on the chain and Techno trips over a piece of gold laying out and into Wilbur’s lap. Wilbur runs a hand through Techno’s hair, gently combing through the tangled knots in his long hair. Techno begins to gently pick through his brother’s hair in return.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Wil,” Techno replies.
“Better not dream of it, it better be a nightmare if it’s in your sleep,” Wilbur retorts. Techno wraps his arms around Wilbur and hugs him tightly, pushing his face into his twin’s neck. Wilbur mirrors the action and they sit there wrapped in each other’s embrace until they fall asleep.
Wilbur wakes up on the floor, a cold chain wrapped around his ankle and one tightly held in his hand. “Tech?” Wilbur asks, tightening his hug around his twin. His twin mumbles something before purring. Wilbur’s instincts rise up demanding safe-safe-safe-twin-twin-equal-love! Wilbur purrs in response and gently butts his forehead against his sleepy twin.
“Wilbur,” Techno complains, “You made us sleep on the floor, now I have a crick in my neck.” Wilbur gently butts his twin’s head again and chuffs. “Yeah, sure whatever, love you too, now, get me food.” Techno lays more on Wilbur, squishing him to the floor.
“Techno, get your own food,” Wilbur complains when Techno digs his slightly sharper-than-average nails into Wilbur’s arm. “You’re an adult!”
“And you’re my twin, get it for me or I’m going to call you a nerd,” Techno says, as though the other doesn’t already do that.
Wilbur just gets more comfortable on the floor and looks up at his brother, “You already do that, so why should I do something more for you? Huh? Ever think of that?” Techno snorts at the response but moves to get his own food. He’s stopped short a couple of feet away from the pile of beef jerky and canned fruit. His twin really sucks at preparing food for their den time, Wilbur really ought to have done it himself.
“Wilbur, I can’t reach.” Techno deadpans, giving Wilbur a glare.
“And that’s my problem why?” Wilbur says, mocking the way his twin would usually say that to Wilbur.
“Stop stealing my lines.”
“Stop stealing my lines.” Wilbur mocks. Techno just glares at him. Wilbur smirks.
“You owe me ten bucks.”
“You owe me ten bucks.”
“Then we’re even.”
“Then we’re even.”
“I owe you ten bucks.”
“I owe you ten bucks.” Wilbur stops. “Wait a minute.”
Techno snorts, “Pay up, nerd.” Wilbur growls and Techno’s eyes focus on him. “Don’t growl at me.”
“You started it, nerd,” Wilbur pulls hard on Techno’s chain, causing Techno to stumble toward him, nearly into Wilbur’s lap.
“Get in the nest before we start this,” Techno says, his red eyes not holding any slack. Wilbur glares.
“Fine, but only because I said so.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Techno growls and Wilbur snarls in response. They barely manage to get into their nest before Techno lunges for Wilbur’s arm. Wilbur moves out of the way but trips over Techno yanking the chain. Wilbur pulls equally as hard and Techno trips as well, but he loses his balance and falls into Wilbur and they crash into the soft blankets.
Wilbur wraps his arms around his twin, pinning Techno’s arms to his sides. “I-” Wilbur says but stops. He… oddly doesn’t want Techno to submit anymore. He just wants to cuddle. That’s… weird.
“I ain’t submitting to a nerd,” Techno teases playfully.
“I wasn’t gonna tell you to submit, I’m just saying,” Wilbur smirks and tightens his grip. Techno tries (and fails) to break out of the hold. “I was saying that I just wanted my brother in the nest.” Wilbur purposefully adds a soft whine at the end, knowing that he could very well trigger his brother’s protective instincts. Maybe his natural mother-henning that he got from Phil.
“Wilbur,” Techno huffs, “stop bein’ dramatic and let me up.”
“Let yourself up.” Wilbur lays more heavily on top of Techno and lets the smugness drip into his tone, “Or are you going to come with me to–”
Techno growls and pushes upward, catching Wilbur off-guard and knocking him off. “Hoard.” Wilbur looks up at his twin and lets out a sharp bark of laughter when he sees his twin barely fighting off his instincts.
“What if I don’t wanna?” Wilbur lounges on the floor, ignoring the way that the hardwood digs into his joints. “What if I’m perfectly fine right here?”
“Who said that was a choice?” Techno asks, grabbing the front of Wilbur’s shirt and pulling him to a standing position. Wilbur was barely taller than Techno, making it difficult for either of them to do what they often did -jokingly of course- to Phil and Tommy. Sure, it was often seen by instincts as a sign of aggression and dominance, but they all mostly knew their places in the sounder.
Wilbur doesn’t know why his instincts are having such a problem adjusting. They shouldn’t be doing that. Right?
Techno drags Wilbur away from the bed and into their separate hoard room. It used to be a study, but it soon became the twins’ hoard room after it had all been moved from Phil’s old house to this one.
Wilbur will never admit to how lonely he was here, but in truth, he had been lonely alone in this house. Every time his family visited, he found himself secretly wishing they’d stay when they’d stop by. He hated how the silence seemed to echo into the crooks and nannies of the house, every crack that he’d caused with a fit of rage screamed of painful silence.
Every injury he had to treat himself, no father to worriedly hover over him, no twin to ask who needed to be shoved into a wall, no baby brother cuddling into his side.
Just him and the silence that sometimes seemed to manifest as a fiery redhead with an anger problem.
Techno shoves Wilbur into a pile of their gold and it topples on top of him. Thankfully, he’s built a bit of a resistance to such a thing, since it’s typical of piglins and piglin hybrids to do in a hoard room. “Techno,” Wilbur complains, “I’m stuck.”
“That’s the point.” Wilbur sneaks a hand into the fresh air and waves it around, a silent plea for his brother to let him out. “Fine. But–”
“No buts, let me out or I’m going to move everything around.” Wilbur would do it too. He’s done it before. Although it irks his own instincts, the satisfaction of messing with his brother outweighs it most of the time.
Keyword ‘most’.
Because there are times like this when Wilbur would cry if one thing was moved too far from its place. “Fine.” Techno pulls Wilbur out but makes a hurt, sad whine. Wilbur immediately clings to his twin and Techno chuckles darkly. “I win.”
“Not fair! I haven’t had to deal with instincts like this before!” Wilbur pouts, but ultimately, doesn’t let go of his brother. Wilbur doesn’t completely understand what’s happening, but as long as someone in this house does, then he thinks he can deal with it for a bit longer.
“I have,” Techno teases, trying to shove Wilbur away. “Awful, isn’t it? You just want to cling to your–” Techno stops and Wilbur grins, curling his fists into the back of Techno’s silk shirt.
“Your twin? Oh? I see, I get it from you!”
“Shut up or I’ll shove you up the wall,” Techno rolls his eyes and tries to turn away from Wilbur.
“Nah you wouldn’t, you love me too much to do that!” Wilbur grins when Techno looks defeated for a second before Techno suddenly has a smirk, Wilbur’s own smug smile falling suspiciously. “What are you doing?” Wilbur asks as Techno moves closer to their nest.
“Showing you how much you would love the nest,” Techno replies, falling into the nest and dragging Wilbur with him. Wilbur yelps as they fall and land amongst the pillows. Wilbur is overwhelmed by the smell of sounder. He begins to purr and it stutters as Wilbur tries to talk around it.
“What is happening?”
“Aw, what’s wrong? Don’t know how to deal with your instincts?” Techno teases and Wilbur growls softly. “It’s okay Wilbur, I understand how hard it must be what with inflation and tax season coming up.”
Wilbur huffs and decides to ignore his brother in favor of snuggling closer. He’s beginning to drift to sleep as he rumbles, “Brother-mine-protect-protector-safe-mine-mine-love.”
“Brother-safe-protect-protector-safe-mine-love,” is the response that Wilbur hears right before he falls asleep.
Techno curls around Wilbur’s sleeping form. He won’t tell anyone ever, but he’s honestly enjoying how much time he’s spending with his twin. He begins to purr when his brother’s sleepy purr reaches his sensitive ears.
Techno smiles at his twin. He thinks that he’s overthinking this situation. Maybe Wilbur’s just going to get through this better than Techno did. After all, Phil had caught on to Techno’s transition from runt to brute long after it’d first begun. They’d caught Wilbur’s….
Techno stops.
Years later.
They went through it around the same time, but Wilbur’s never finished. Memories of shouts echoing from downstairs, but being unable to leave Phil’s nest rise from his mind, keeping him awake. He remembers being chained in Phil’s nest, forbidden from leaving the safety of the wall of blankets, but Phil sleeps like the dead, so he hadn’t heard Wilbur’s cries.
Techno had originally thought he’d been making it up, his instincts making up scenarios and causing him to hallucinate that his twin was in danger. In actuality, he had been in danger and Techno wasn’t there to save him.
But all this time, Wilbur’s instincts hadn’t deemed it safe enough to show themselves. Sure, they popped up from time to time throughout their childhood since “The Incident” but there hadn’t been an overabundance of them like Techno sometimes would have.
Wilbur hadn’t felt safe. Or… he thought it wasn’t time yet, it could’ve been a number of things that had prolonged this. Wilbur purrs as he begins to settle into a hibernation state. Techno groans as he realizes that this means he won’t be able to leave. Techno’s instincts are also begging for hibernation, to just sleep these weeks away with Wilbur.
He shoots a quick “hibernating” text to Phil and hopes the older knows what he means by that as he settles beside his twin. Phil will probably rush Tommy and him home to take care of them, but that’s fine. Techno’s dealt with that before.
Techno yawns and lets a purr rumble out of his chest as Wilbur curls around him. He chuckles as he wraps his arms around his twin and falls into a deep sleep. They’re both safe, protected, and know that nothing is ever going to tear them apart.
Well, a gremlin might try physically, but Techno doesn’t want to let go of Wilbur quite yet.