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"Are you sure you'll be okay without us?"
Technoblade rolled his eyes. "Do you think my answer will be different now compared to the last eight times you asked me?"
With a small laugh, Phil stood from his kneeled position. "Fair enough. We'll only be gone for four days at most. Three if Tommy gets homesick." He picked up his bag to haul it up onto his shoulder. Wilbur and Tommy were already packing some stuff into the cart they'd be taking.
It was barely two hours' travel to the nearby city. Wilbur often went there for the day to play his music and came back when sunset drew near. But this time the trip would last longer and all three of them were going, meaning Techno would be left by himself. Some sort of festival was going on in the city and Phil said the market that was part of these festivities was a once-a-year opportunity for him to do business. He was taking a lot of items to sell. Knowing Phil, he'd probably be coming back with even more. Wilbur was going to play during the festival too.
Tommy had offered to stay behind. Techno could see that the offer was genuine, though he could also tell that the boy was really hoping he would refuse. And Techno did, not liking the idea of Tommy staying only because he thought Techno needed him to.
Just because Technoblade was confined to this small plot of land didn't mean his family had to be. The mermaid could look after himself.
That didn't stop Phil from worrying, but then again Techno was pretty sure Phil would still be worrying with one foot in the grave. It was a chronic condition at this point. What could even go wrong in four days?
Techno would enjoy the peace and quiet. He would farm his potato vines and get working on his farm. Phil had introduced a colony of freshwater shrimps into his pond and Techno was trying to get them to herd. It was… an interesting experiment. The shrimp were pretty stupid. The upside (and the reason Phil had gotten them) was that Techno had his own food source that didn't rely on his family feeding him. He still preferred meat, but it would do in a pinch.
"It sucks you won't be able to watch me play," Wilbur said wistfully. He'd halfway seriously proposed the idea of taking Techno with them in a jar. He was always scared Techno felt left out when he couldn't be included in stuff like this.
For his part, Techno would rather do anything than be confined to such a tight space again. Besides, if they did that they'd be spending the entire trip needing to hide the jar in an overcoat and try to keep Techno hidden while also giving him peeks of the outside world. The risk of somebody seeing him was too big.
"You'll have to do an encore when you get back," he said.
Wilbur grinned. "I don't think that was ever in question. In you, I finally have a willing audience to judge my new numbers."
"Hey?!" Tommy shoved a bag into Wilbur's arm hard enough to make the taller man stumble. "I'm a willing audience. I love your songs."
"That's the problem," Wilbur said. "You're not impartial enough. You just say everything I write is good."
"Because it is!" Tommy seemed very passionate about that fact. As if denying it would be a personal offense to him. He probably saw it that way as well, Techno had seen the way Tommy reacted to anybody badmouthing his family.
Wilbur handed the bag back. "See, this is why I need Techno to hear them too. At least he'll be honest about what I can improve."
"I am the best musical judge," Techno allowed. He didn't know if they failed to hear the sarcasm in his voice or were purposefully ignoring it.
Phil walked up to them with a wry expression. "We need to stop wasting time," he said mildly. "Do you see those clouds rolling in? We want to set out before the rainfall."
Techno tilted his head and could see that what Phil said rang true. While still far away, darkness was building on the horizon, the air smelled heavy with the coming downpour. They packed up the remaining luggage quickly and bid him goodbye one more time - with Phil asking for one more assurance that Techno would be safe, the worrywart - before they left. Techno waved despite him being pretty sure they couldn't see into the pond at this angle. It just felt like what he was supposed to do.
It's what he saw them do when they waved each other off at the door.
The clouds had packed together into a dense blanket, closer to midnight blue than pure black. They were building in the opposite direction of the city though, so Techno supposed it would be fine. With a flick of Phil's wrist, he snapped the reins and the horse started walking.
Techno waited until the cart had disappeared around the bend in the road and didn't think much more of it.
Techno was woken up by the rushing of water.
Curled up on his side in his cave, he didn't realize what was happening at first. One moment he was still blissfully unaware of the world, cheek pressed into the moss and his tailfin twitching in the throes of his dream. Then the sound reached him - a rumble of it that pulled on his consciousness. He rubbed his eyes as he unfurled, the balls of his hands pressing into his sockets slightly as if the noise was caught between his temples.
It was raining. His mind needed a second or two to catch up, but it was definitely raining. It had been raining for almost three days straight, on and off. He could hear the patter of the droplets on the surface of his pond, echoing down with every impact. He had become used to it and the rain never bothered Techno anyway, the sound not entirely unpleasant. But the rapid tempo and general loudness of the din meant it was definitely raining a lot worse than he'd witnessed so far.
And the rushing wasn't caused by the rain.
When Phil brought him to the river - Gods, Techno had a hard time accepting that was almost half a year ago. That's how long he'd been with his new family - he'd spent a couple of seconds pulled under by the current. Techno remembered how the water had swirled and foamed and pulled at him, and how it had sounded not dissimilar from what he could hear now.
He swam out of his cave and watched as something fell into the pond.
Techno scrunched up his face, blinking to better see the stick sink into the murky water. It wasn't very big, yet it still felt out of place to him. Because there were no trees in Phil's garden near enough for their branches to fall off and hit Techno's home. That was something Phil had kept in mind when building it. Maybe it was blown into the pond instead if the wind was severe enough, though that seemed unlikely. Unless it was storming.
Looking up, Techno saw the surface ripple like a distorted mirror.
Definitely a storm. And not a small one either. With his chin still upturned, Techno watched as a bright flash overtook his vision, muddled since he was deep underwater. Lightning? He hadn't seen lightning since he was kept in the garden by his second owner.
He swam up a bit automatically, curiosity drawing him to the surface. Particles hovered in front of him, making it hard to see.
Dirt.
The water was dirty.
Techno swept around, tail beating harder to gain some speed. He could finally pinpoint exactly what was causing the rushing noise. The edges of his pond were overflowing, while at the same time experiencing pushback from the excess rainwater that had saturated the earth around it. A flash flood, swirling up the muddy underground. That explained why the water was so dirty he could barely see.
His gills moved to extract oxygen as if his awareness of how polluted the pond was also suddenly made it harder to breathe. Or maybe the breathing itself hadn't become more difficult, yet Techno's species wasn't going to fare well in this sort of contamination. He'd get sick if he stayed in it long enough.
And that would be pretty bad.
Quickly, Techno darted down to his cave again. His trident was propped against the wall where he left it. Techno grabbed it and swam back out. It would really suck if this storm ruined the pond but he'd fret about how to fix the damages after. He wanted to get inside.
The sky was dark when he surfaced, the wind cold and fierce. This storm was of a magnitude Techno didn't know he'd ever witnessed. Thunder rumbled overhead as lightning cracked the sky open, shadows and light both blinding him. The entire garden was flooded with water and Techno had a spare thought for Phil's precious vegetables and flowers. There probably wouldn't be a lot left of them.
He braced himself and curled his fingers around the trident better, preparing to take off. But before Techno could, a sharp pain tore his side open.
He almost dropped his trident when he wrapped one hand over the bleeding gash, feeling the wound sting beneath his fingertips. The branch that had cut him sunk to the bottom of the pond, joining the few others that had been ripped off from the trees.
Techno couldn't stick around even a second longer.
Not wasting any time, he launched himself from the pond immediately upon reaching the surface this time. Being up in the air had never been his favorite thing, though the raging storm made it even more disorienting than Techno was already used to. He landed in the small birdbath that Phil had put halfway between the pond and the house.
Then he pressed himself against the stone bottom of the shallow basin for a moment and simply breathed.
His side hurt akin to fire, every twitch of muscle making agony run through him. Techno was bleeding a lot, and no doubt Phil would freak out when he found out what happened. But Techno could breathe again. He hadn't noticed how much his lungs burned, trying to find oxygen in the grimy floodwaters.
After a moment of recovery, Techno shifted the trident in his grip and aimed for his next mark: a small flowerpot set on the ground near the window. With force, he propelled himself towards it. He landed with a splash, dizzy and in more pain than he could remember being in six months. But still alive. So far, so good.
The next bit was the hardest though. Techno had to get inside.
He needed to launch himself onto the windowsill, where Phil had attached even more flowerpots to the wood. They had also changed the latches on the window itself to be at the bottom. That way, Techno could open and close the window without help. All he had to do was get up there and push the window open (hard, but not impossible. Phil thought the weight would be a concern but Techno had proven him wrong. Regardless, his family almost always left the window ajar even when it was cold out. They probably closed it before they left though).
Once inside, without the storm making his head spin and being so deafeningly loud that it threw off his aim, it would be laughably easy to get into his aquarium. And then he'd be safe.
Techno hissed as more blood seeped out from between his fingers. His throat contracted around a distress cry for his pod attempting to burst its way out. Looking for another of his species and calling them to aid. But he couldn't. He was alone. He had to get inside.
He'd still be alone, but he'd be safe.
He leaned back, tail keeping him afloat as the rain pelted at his face and stung his eyes. He didn't want to overshoot, even with the trident relieving him of fall damage. This was not the moment for him to get caught missing.
And not only because it'd be an embarrassing way to ruin his perfect track record.
Water rushed along the edges of the pot he was in, actually managing to pull at his body. The force wasn't too worrisome, but everything else was. Techno exhaled once, locking his jaw and preparing himself. Then he took off.
Suspended in nothing, he really thought he would make it. He had to make it.
His trident caught on the edge of the windowsill, bringing Technoblade's momentum to an abrupt end. His arm throbbed from the impact, fingers loosening and leaving the trident to fall out of it and get swept up in the wind. Techno tried to make a grab for it - Phil had spent too much effort on that trident for Techno to let it go to waste - but it was too late. He was falling. Falling, falling, vertigo stealing his thoughts away.
He hit the water back first, spine bending in half and the wound above his hip smarting freshly. Under the surface it was quiet. Even with the rushing flood, it was so quiet.
Techno felt like he was going to puke.
He hunched down, tail pressed up and against his chest, arms held against himself protectively. Pressure returned to the wound, but it wouldn't stop the bleeding. The rain was deafening him and the water was murky with it.
Techno could do nothing but lay there and pray he wouldn't pass out and die.
He drifted concerningly close to it, the noise dimming to an echo in his ears and numbness overtaking his nerves. He blinked slowly, time slipping past him in stuttering bursts. At some point, the rain stopped but Techno still couldn't move.
He couldn't-
When the pot tipped he whined. He jerked to the side, arms shooting out instinctively to keep his balance. But he was spilled over the edge and into warm hands that caught him.
"-e's in here! I found him!"
Fingers closed around him slightly, holding him gently. Their skin was warm.
Footsteps. More shouting. Techno curled up tighter and couldn't move anymore, but a thumb pressed into his sternum and carefully he was lifted. Wilbur, going by the grooves in the fingers that Techno recognized. It was because of the guitar playing.
"Bring him inside." And that was Phil's voice.
Wilbur stood up and the jolt only made Techno feel worse. It also made his elbow brush against the wound, leading him to flinch. Turned out the numbness was definitely not sticking around.
"I got a towel," Tommy said. Phil was moving around, grabbing stuff.
His strength was draining fast but Techno still forced his eyelids open again, squinting at his family hovering over him. "You came back early," he observed out loud.
"Shhhh, it's okay. You'll be okay, stay still." Wilbur bunched the towel up slightly, so Techno could lie comfortably. The mermaid was shivering.
"Of course we came back early?" Tommy said, voice pinched and shifting a little higher with fright as he helped Phil. Techno didn't know he could sound like that. Maybe he had back when the whole Quackity thing was going down, but Techno had locked most of that out of his memory, the entire last week feeling like more of a fever delusion.
"We had no idea the storm was going to get this bad, but we left as soon as it became clear." Phil had gotten some bandages. They were cut to size so they could be used on Techno. "If the rain hadn't made the roads hard to travel we would have been here sooner."
Techno wished he could say that he didn't know why they came back. Perhaps six months ago - heck, even only three months ago - that would have been the case. Why would he have thought anybody cared? All he had were cruel human owners and the instincts of a pod that he couldn't remember.
Not anymore. Techno had learned all about the meaning of family thanks to them.
"Well, was the show good at least?" he asked, coughing a bit. Some of the dirt must have made it into his lungs.
"Stop talking," Wilbur said sternly. "Just… I'll tell you about it later, okay. Concentrate on getting better. Let us take care of you." There was a crease between his eyebrows, one Techno had seen there on occasion when Tommy did something stupid and self-endangering. Or when Phil was sick.
Techno nodded, his usual stubborn nature washed away by exhaustion. For once, he'd let Wilbur tell him what to do.
For once, he would allow himself to be cared for now that he had people willing to do that.