Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Michael! Hurry, it’s starting soon!” Techno shouted down the hallway leading down to Michael’s room. He didn’t hear a response, but the pitter-patter of small hooves sped up so he assumed he had been heard.

Nodding slightly to himself, he went back to fixing up snacks in the mansion’s expansive kitchen. Really, why did the kids need this much space? Half the rooms were empty anyway.

He was once again distracted from his snack-making by tiny hands clawing their way up his back. The small form seemed to find its place on his shoulders.

“Hullo,” he said, leaning his head back slightly to look at the child. “You ready for the show?”

“Ye,” Shroud said quietly, fingers messing up Techno’s carefully made hair. He couldn’t find it in himself to be mad.

“Good, got what you need?” His question was answered by the small red flag waved in his face. “Pog.”

“Pog,” the child echoed quietly.

He went back to finishing up the snacks, finally. The game was about to start very soon, so it was about time. Popcorn, chips, and some dip-sauce Phil had said was good. He sniffed it a bit. It looked about right, but he had no idea what it was supposed to taste like.

Spreading some on a chip he held it up to his hair.

“What d’you think? Is it any good?” Tiny fingers reached for his hand. The small spider-hybrid shoved the chip in his mouth and nodded.

“‘S good.”

“Good, good. Would’ve been having words with Phil later if it wasn’t.”

Turning back to the snacks he scooped up the three bowls and went into the living room. At least he hoped it was the living room. It had sofas, it would probably be fine. If it wasn’t a room they were supposed to be in Michael would say something. Maybe.

He set down the bowls on the coffee table, Shroud hanging on to his head with at least five hands. His hair was now beyond saving. Oh well. He had more important things to worry about. Like where the other kid he was supposed to watch was.

“Michael?” He shouted for the second time.

“Almost done!” came the reply. A loud thunk followed the words. He paused for a second. Should he be worried about that? “I’m ok!” Well alright then.

“Drinks!” came a quiet voice from his shoulder.

“Right!”, he said. “Knew I was forgetting something.” He started to walk back to the kitchen. “What d’you want? Think they have apple and carrot juice.” Rummaging around in the fridge proved his words correct.

“Hmm.” Shroud was quiet for a bit. It seemed like this was a very important decision. Techno simply let him think. “Apple.”

“Alright,” he agreed easily. He brought out an apple juice box and hesitated. “Which one do you think Michael would want?” he muttered to the child on his shoulders.

“Apple!” Shroud said quickly while kicking his legs slightly, letting them thump against Techno’s upper chest. That was a bit fast. Almost too fast. He tried to turn his head to look at the kid.

“You sure?” he asked. Shroud simply let out a small giggle, trying to cover his mouth while doing so. “Hmm. Well, now I’m not sure I can trust you on this.” He could feel a smile forcing its way onto his face as well.

“Noo. Promise!” Shroud had given up on covering his giggles.

“Alright, alright,” Techno said with a small laugh. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I..” he raised his voice. “Michael, what kind of juice do you want?”

Techno simply looked at Shroud with his eyebrows raised as Michael’s voice rang out.

“Carrot juice, please!”

Shroud simply giggled ever more, making Techno’s shoulders shake. The man simply shook his head. The kid was ridiculous. For some reason though, the smile on his face didn’t want to leave.

He brought out two carrot juice boxes, one for Michael and one for himself, and moved back to the living room. MCC was going to start in a few short minutes. As he moved to set up his comm in projector mode he felt Shroud wiggle on his shoulders. He paused and moved to stabilize him but before he could, he felt Shroud stand up and jump to the couch. He stopped for a second.

Alright? He looked at Shroud a bit bewildered. The kid just jumped way further than he thought possible for a child that size. But he seemed fine? Just started messing with the pillows and blankets. Techno shook his head. Right, spider-hybrid. He was fine. No need to worry.

Anyway. MCC. Laying the comm on the table he set it up to project up on the living room wall and navigated to the MCC channels. The Red Rabbits’ pov soon took up most of the wall and the laughter from the team rung out into the room. The four face cams took up the left side and whoever worked for MCC shifted the pov cam between the different team members. Seems they arrived just in time, the teams were still in the lobby.

A gasp came from behind him. “T’mmy!” Shroud seemed to have made a small cocoon of blankets. All Techno could see of him was his face and an arm clad in a small red sweater. He assumed Tommy had made it; it seemed unlikely that villagers made sweaters with six armholes.

“You think they’re gonna win, kid?” he asked, moving to join him on the couch.

“Ye!” came the reply. From somewhere within his cocoon he produced his red flag, surprisingly still whole, and waved it around.

“Glad to hear it.” He himself had several doubts about that, but no need to crush the kid’s spirit. He relaxed into the couch, arm across the back of it.

The countdown started on the screen.

“Michael! It’s starting!” He could hear the kid running down the hall.

“Wait, wait, wait, I’m coming!”

“Can’t exactly pause it,” he said as Michael skirted around the corner, almost falling over. The kid simply rolled his eye at him - wow rude - and stretched his arms out.

“Well…” Michael said and shook his arms a bit. “What do you think?” The reason for his late arrival was made apparent. It seemed he had raided both Ranboo and Tubbo’s closet, as well as his own, to find an outfit to fit the event. He had found aqua-colored pants that almost seemed to glow in the low light of the room and an uncomfortably bright red t-shirt. The pants were long enough to cover his hooves. On top of all of that, he had put a truly horrendous Hawaiian shirt that had both colors he needed - that had to be Ranboo’s - and reached below his knees.

All in all, it almost hurt to look at.

“Looks great, kid,” he said, trying to sound somewhat sincere but most likely failing miserably. The kid, surprisingly, didn’t seem to realize. Michael puffed up his chest as he gave Techno a giant smile. He gave a small spin before jumping up on the couch, disappearing into the pillows. Techno huffed and simply poked the pile of cloth that was a child a second ago.

“Set up your comm too if you wanna watch your dad.” That made him move, scrambling to set it up right. Soon after the Aqua Axolotls’ pov join the first one on the wall.

And finally, finally, they could relax.

oOo

The evening was nice. Shroud fell asleep early, flag and popcorn clutched in his hands. Though he woke up at Michael’s shrieks as Tubbo desperately tried to hunt Ranboo’s team in parkour tag. In the end, he only managed to tag Wilbur and Michael seemed like he didn’t know if he should be happy or not.

Shroud, awoken from his nap, stole the dip sauce bowl. He tried to eat most of it with his fingers, causing Techno to have to try and stop six hands from reaching into the bowl, while also trying to get the bowl back.

It did not go well. In the end, he let the kid keep it.

As the evening, and MCC, came to an end, Techno found himself sitting on the sofa, a child asleep on either side of him. He should probably clean up a bit but… Eh, he can’t be bothered getting up, eyes growing heavy.

He reached for the one blanket Shroud hadn’t used for his cocoon and spread it over all three of them.

Warmth, and not just physical, surround him as he finally closed his eyes. Sleep already steeped into his bones. Soft snores the last thing he hears for the night.