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“So we all only have one life now,” tommy finished explaining. And Technoblade’s heart shattered.
Tommy was on his knees next to Wilbur, tending to the bandage wrapped around his shoulder. A lasting wound from the life he lost running away from L’Manberg, just another reminder of everything that had been lost that day. Neither would look at Technoblade.
Looking across the trenches of Pogtopia at his brothers, it was almost hard for Technoblade to recognize them. Tommy had grown since he last saw him, a final growth spurt leaving him just a little taller then Technoblade. Wilbur looked older too, but it was more in the eyes, his face, his body. An exhaustion in his body, an unfamiliar gleam in his eye, this wasn’t the same Wilbur who laughed at the end of a spar as children. He knew Wilbur had lost a life today, but for two lives to have been lost of his brothers since he last saw them…it was one of his worst nightmares coming true.
“How did you lose the other two?” Technoblade asked, voice giving nothing away as he pushed himself off of the wall, moving over to the small food chest they had.
“Eret betrayed us during the War for Independence,” Wilbur spoke for the first time in a while, having let Tommy handle most of the explanation, looking up at Technoblade. “Then this one challenged Dream to a duel.”
They were never good at staying in contact when they drifted apart, he didn’t even know that Wilbur and Tommy had met up again until they got the desperate cry for help. Dropping everyone in the arena, he rushed to his brothers without hesitation, but a part of Technoblade wondered if he was already too late to truly protect his brothers.
“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” Tommy mumbled, subdued after the day. He stood, brushing his pants off before helping Wilbur up.
Phil and him only had one life, all of them had understood this from a young age, Phil carefully explaining it to them one night as they all sat, cuddled under his wings. Life, death, it was something all of them had understood. But Technoblade had promised himself that night his brothers would never know the danger of living with only one life, of only having one chance, never able to make the fatal mistake. The constant worry, buried in the back of your mind.
Technoblade approached his brothers, standing side by side. Grasping one shoulder each he looked into their eyes, glancing back and forth. “Let’s keep it like that, okay?”
As his brother’s nodded he pulled him into a hug. Tommy instantly hugged him tightly. Wilbur’s arm slowly skidding around as well, righting, grabbing tightly onto the cape.
And for now, that was enough for Technoblade.