Chapter Text
“Is this the first time you’ve done this?” Techno thinks that’s a weird question, one he’s not really inclined to answer. Like the others before it, it painted him in some kind of sad sick light. He wasn’t going to dig this hole and barry himself, not when this woman clearly wants him to.
Knowing better than to answer the question he keeps his mouth shut, gaze fixated on the small window built into the door. The woman sighs, like he was an uncooperative child. He ignores her, hands too busy playing with the hem of his shirt. Usually he would chew on the laces of his sweater but they made him change clothes. Saying it was too dangerous for him to be left with laces.
His eyes locked with a familiar chocolate brown through the small window. But instead of a sparkle or twinkle in them all he saw was tears. Wilbur was staring at him, mouthing something he didn’t quite understand. He tilted his head to the side, Wilbur’s frown deepening at the action.
He could see Phil behind him with someone dressed in scrubs. He was distressed, hair a blonde mess and his iconic green and white striped hat nowhere to be seen. His heart squeezed painfully at the sight of his dad being so… Unwound.
“Techno, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.” He tarried his eyes away from his family and back over to the woman.
Techno couldn’t help but frown at the other, wanting this to all blow over. “I want to go home.” He whispers, the silence of the room doing no buffering to stop the other from hearing him.
The other sighs once more, leaning forward onto her knees. “I know, but I need to make sure you aren’t going to try and harm yours-“
Techno jolts awake as the car hits a pothole, eyes snapping open. His breath hitches in his throat, frantic eyes looking out and around himself. He calms down when he finds his dad and brother at the front of the car, Wilbur bobbing his head to the radio as Phil hummed along to the lyrics.
After realizing that their car was in fact not being attacked by something, Techno sat up in his seat. He pressed his palms against his eyes, rubbing circles into them to try and wake up. The action gets the attention of the other people in the car, Wilbur turning to face the back. “Morning sleeping beauty!” He yells, patting his knee.
He grumbles something nonsensical as he bats his brother's hand away, Phil snickering from the driver's seat. “Don’t start fighting in my car you too, we’re almost there.” At the words, Techno freezes, turning his head to look out the window. He was expecting streets of buzziling people, buildings stretching up to meet the sky and the smell of pollution.
But that wasn’t what he saw, what he saw were tall trees instead of tall buildings, forestry and the smell of nature. They weren’t even on a proper road, gravel crunching underneath the tiers. He swallows thickly, legs starting to bounce as he pushes his forehead against the chilly window.
“We passed the town a bit ago.” Wilbur speaks up, turning in his own seat to get a look outside.
“How interesting.” He murmurs as he rolls his eyes. “I thought you said we were moving to someplace nice.” He questions a second later, moving his face off of the window. “This is literally all just trees.”
Phil waves one of his hands haphazardly in the air, not bothering to turn and face him. “It is! It’s just not in the town, it’s out more. You guys are going to love it, trust me.” Trust me he says, like Techno had an option on the matter. If he did he’d still be in his beloved city, white nose of cars and bus horns in his ears as he sat on the balcony of their apartment.
He didn’t trust Phil and his plan to move out here, not one bit. He didn’t care all about the nonsense his dad tried to shove down his throat on how this was better, they would be better. It was all lies after all, soon enough they will be packing and moving once more. This time towards the city and not away from it.
Techno crosses his arms, leaning back into the seat as he stares at the back of his father’s seat. Phil was right about it not being too much longer, the tree’s giving away to a decently sized clearing. He looked out the window once more, a house coming into view. Phil quickly parks in front of it, the car rolling to a stop.
“We’re here.” Phil announces, the two already starting to unbuckle their seatbelts. Techno follows along, dragging his backpack that was sitting on the ground with him. He slams the door behind himself, a satisfied sound ringing out. He puts the backpack on, walking a few steps away from the car.
He has to admit that what was waiting for him wasn’t just a house. It was too big to be a house, but it wasn’t some kind of mansion either. It was a fusion between the two, with two levels and an attic. It looked weird, nothing like he was used to. Weeds sprouted up all over the place, only adding to the creepy factor that started to dawn on him.
The house was brick, spruce and some other materials he didn’t care to name. It was old timey, like a living thing hadn't graced it for years. He distantly thinks it looks more like a mini castle than a home. Techno’s drawn out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. “What do you boys think?” Phil asks from his right.
Wilbur walks into his line of sight, a giant smile on his face as he adjusts his own bag straps. “Looks amazing.” He starts, putting his hands on his hips. “Like a mini castle! How did you even find this place? You never told us.” His dad chuckles as his hands tighten around his shoulder, thumb rubbing circles onto it.
Techno tries to ignore the gesture. “You wouldn’t believe me if I said. Was a good find though, lots of space. What do you think of it Techno?” Great, now he’s being asked questions, definitely what he wanted.
He shrugs, moving from his dad's side as he takes a step closer. “It’s big.” He says, looking around the area. “Overgrown a bit.” He adds, looking down at the dandelions at his feet.
“Can we head inside now?” Wilbur speaks up, moving their dad’s attention over to himself. He sends a silent thank you over to his brother, the other just looking read to run into the place by himself.
“Of course, just be careful of the boxes littering around the place. I haven’t had a chance to unpack anything since the movers came last week.” Wilbur nods, looking over to him in a silent question. He looks like a golden retriever puppy if a puppy was over six feet, had wire framed glasses and was named Wilbur Craft. Techno huffs, walking right over to the other.
His hand is snatched in no time as Wilbur drags them both into the house, the door squeaking open on old hinges. The interrater was as old looking as the actual house, a thin layer of dust covering every surface he dares to look at. At least none of the floorboards squeaked as they ran around the place.
They spent a few minutes roaming around the place, pointing to things and chatting. The first floor was what you would expect out of a house. Living room, bathroom, kitchen, dining room that probably no one would be using, what looks like to be an office, sliding door to the backyard and a mysterious basement door.
Yep, definitely creepy. “Are you going to open it?” He asks as they find themselves in front of it, the handle dusty like everything else.
Wilbur looks at him then over to the door. A shiver runs down both of their spines. “Why do I have to do it!?” He asks, gesturing over to the wooden door.
Techno shrugs, pointing at him with a steady finger. “Because you're the oldest.”
“So?” He frowns, crossing his arms.
He smiles, crossing his own arms as he stares up at his brother. “If you die then it isn’t much of a tragedy.” Wilbur squawks, eyes widening as his mouth opens to protest.
He doesn’t get a chance to say anything as the front door opens, Phil stopping whatever he was going to say. “You guys wanna pick out your rooms?” He calls, the two pause in there on coming argument, eyes narrowing at each other.
Before Wilbur could act Techno pushes him into the wall and darts off, turning around the corner as he runs down the hall. “Fucker!” He hears the other shout, footsteps roaring behind him as the other follows. Techno might not have wanted to move into the middle of nowhere but even that can’t stop the primal urge in getting the best room in the house.
Techno makes it to their dad first, Phil already looking exhausted as Techno puts out his hands. He makes grabby hands at the keys the other was currently holding. “Don’t break anything.” Phil stresses as he puts the keys in the palms of his hand. There’s three, one for each of them.
He nods, half listening as he turns on his heels and bolts back down the hall. He passes Wilbur, the other having to slow down to turn and race back down the hall. Techno heads right for the staircase they had already passed a couple of times as they looked around the house minutes prior.
He storms up them, coming into another hall. This one was wider, a big space with rooms along the walls. Windows also littered the cream coloured space, sunlight filtering in from outside. He didn’t care for the orange hues as he ran over to a door, throwing it open and peering inside. It was blank, like the rest of the house. No ounce of personality in it.
But he also could tell this wasn’t the room for him. So turning on his heels he heads for the second door, opening it. He doesn’t even get a second to look around before he’s being tackled to the ground. “Crap!” He hisses, body slamming against the floor.
He tries to army crawl away but it’s too late, Wilbur sitting on top of his legs as he bends forward to try and grab the keys out of his hands. “Pass the keys!” He yells.
“No!” He screams back, hands clenching around the bumpy and sharp object. “Get off of me!” Wilbur did in fact not get off of him, instead resorting to the most illegal strategy he could. He reached underneath his shirt and started tickling him, right in the sides. “S-stop!” He laughs, hands clenching harder against the keys.
Wilbur laughed evilly, tickling him faster. “Then let go of the keys!” Techno whined, shaking his head. “Then I’m not stopping.”
Techno couldn’t help the laughs that erupted out of himself, legs kicking the ground as he tried to get the other off. But with his bag still on his back and Wilbur on top of his upper legs he couldn’t push himself up. “N-no really stop tick-tickling me! I’m going to pee myself, stop!”
The other stopped then, only to grab at his wrists and pry open his hands. He tries to clamp his hand back down but Wilbur gets the keys before he can, hurrying off of him and out of the room. “Try getting the key’s now Techie!” The older taunts, opening a door somewhere behind him.
“You cheated.” He calls back, pushing himself up back onto his legs. He walks into the main area of this floor, watching as Wilbur un-hook’s one key and pockets it.
“I call this room.” He says, turning to face him. He had a shit eating grin on his face, tossing over the other two keys.
Techno catches the two other keys as he rolls his eyes. “You're horrible.” He states, rolling the keys around with his fingers.
“I’m skillful.” Wilbur tries to correct him. He doubts that that’s true at all. He chooses not to get into it with the other as he looks at the room they just left, looking around it. Like the other one it didn’t speak him. Both room’s were awful. This place was awful.
Then an idea popped into his head. Techno walked over to the top of the stairs, catching sight of Phil on the bottom level. His dad was bringing in the last of their stuff from the car, setting it on the wall to put away later. He whistled, getting the older man’s attention. “Can I have the attic?” He asks, gesturing off towards the fifth door up here.
He hears Wilbur make a disgruntled sound behind him. Phil however actually seems to consider it, humming in thought. “Sure, I wasn’t really going to pack anything up there anyways.” Techno smiles, turning to his brother with the most smuggest look he could possibly put on.
“Have fun down here loser.” He says, turning tail and heading over to the door. He quickly opens it and closes it behind himself. Looking up there were stairs heading upwards, a ceiling lamp above him. He reached up and pulled on the silver string, the light illuminating the stairs. Techno then headed up the stairs, wondering how much space he was even going to get.
Turns out it was a pretty decent amount. The second he gets up to the attic he knows he’s made the right choice, the place being very open with a high ceiling. Like the rest of the house it would do good with a little dusting but that was really all the negatives. The floors didn’t creak and the beams holding up everything were sturdy.
There was plenty of space to hang up posters and his excessive collection of mythology books. The best part? There was a huge circular window facing the forest behind the house, with an indent so you could lay on it. It was by far his favourite part. Techno walked over to the window and took off his bag, setting it down on the ground near his feet.
He sat down on the spot near the window, looking out at the backyard. It was actually pretty big, the tree lines a little ways away. Of course the weeds have claimed it as their home, but he guesses it’s not that bad. Doesn’t mean he wants to be here, but maybe he can make technically living in the wild work.
Maybe. Hopefully.
~ ☾ ~
“Eat your beans Wilbur.” Phil says, sounding like a disappointed parent whose kids won’t eat his nasty beans, wait-
“I’m not eating beans Phil.” Wilbur huffs, moving it around with his fork. Techno does the same, moving it to a different part of his plate. He would rather eat his chewelry than whatever hell spawn beans were. Phil sighs, moving on from the beans. Good, Techno didn’t want to get into another argument with their dad about eating healthy.
Plus, he has no say in eating healthy when he’s caught the man drinking five cups of coffee right after the other at twelve at night. Techno ate a couple of bites of his food before looking around the kitchen. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it before, Wilbur and him were running around it just hours ago. But sitting down at the table - because they refuse to use the dining room for eating - made it possible to actually look.
From his spot he could see into the backyard, the darkness just staring back at him. There were no lights yet out there, Phil saying they were going to get them in the coming month. Along with the long list of other things they have to do. Like unpacking all the boxes that were laying around, getting the bed frames in so they weren’t just sleeping on a mattress and starting school.
Which he wasn’t at all excited for. Being the new kid was the worst, but that was for a later time, for future Techno to deal with. Right now he was busy staring at the backyard, something feeling off about it. Was that shadow always there?
“-you listening mate?” Techno turns to Phil, blinking owlishly at him. His dad just huffs, looking between him and Wilbur. “Like I was saying, you two are going to be going to Essempi. I’ll drive you in the morning and after school, unless you join any clubs.” Oh he’s talking about school, boring.
Techno, obviously with better things to do, turns back towards the backyard. The mysterious shadow missing from the long grass. He squints his eyes, wondering if he finally needs glasses like Wilbur does. But no, he sees everything perfectly. The shadow was just gone, vanished. Was it a wild animal? They do practically live in the forest…
“Techno.” Wilbur pats his shoulder, drawing his attention over. “Your spacing out there.” He says, eyes scanning him. “You good?”
He hums, taking another quick bite of his food - now a bit cold - as he leans back in his seat. “Yea, just.. in my head.” He shrugs, eyes moving back towards the backyard. “You know how it is.” Wilbur and Phil share a glance, nodding before they continue their chat about school.
Which he ignores, because Techno doesn’t want to think about going to prison yet. Phil says something about courses and clubs and after school catch up but he doesn’t bother trying to decipher it. Instead he rubs his ankles together, focuses on eating and tries to think of something that doesn’t have to be about his future here.
That is of course until he sees the shadow again in the corner of his eye.
Until he sees
something
out there, watching him.