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grey-rambles · 2 years ago

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Of First Loves and Second Chances

A Tale of Choosing Love Against All Odds

Chapter One

Words: ~2.4k

Warnings: Allusions to death, nothing graphic. That’s all for this chapter, but there will be more warnings on later parts!

Notes: This one has been in the works since May, before Techno’s passing. I’m posting it here as a sort of tribute to my love for him, as I will likely not write anything else for his character. There’s gonna be six parts, and I’ll be posting one per week until it’s done. It’s been hard sometimes to write, definately a labour of love, and I’m excited to finally share it with you all!

Masterlist | Requests

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You had never thought that you would see him again. And yet, standing at the head of the Empire’s forces, there he was.

It was almost certainly him. Even after all these years, you would recognize his features anywhere. No one else had hair that shade of blush pink, nor did anyone else you’d ever seen have eyes that seemed to glow crimson in the sunlight. He was taller, certainly, and broader, dressed in unfamiliar and expensive looking armour, a red cape draped across his shoulders, but it was undeniably still him.

As a member of the forces stepped forward to announce the surrender of the King’s army to the Empire and subsequent change in ruler for your town, you could barely process a word of what they were saying, eyes focused only on the man in front of you.

Once the announcements were finished and the crowd had begun to disperse, you quickly uprooted yourself from the ground where you had been planted, stepping towards the Empire’s troops and calling out hesitantly.

“Technoblade?”

Red eyes snapped to meet yours.

Seven years ago.....

You ran through the centre of town, dodging around pedestrians with every step. Quickly darting around a corner and down an alleyway, you made your way towards a small natural area, a tree on a hill overlooking the river that ran through town. Sitting beneath the tree was a familiar silhouette, and you broke into a grin as you approached.

“Techno!” you cried out, waving your arm above your head frantically in greeting. The figure’s eyes snapped up at your call, sitting up straighter as his eyes scanned around for the source of the noise, relaxing as they locked onto you.

You collapsed on the ground next to him, chest heaving. “Hi,” you said, looking up at him from where you lay.

His lips lifted in the slightest hint of a smile. “Halloooo,” he replied. A quiet settled over the pair of you as you caught your breath. Sitting up after a couple of moments, you again initiate conversation.

“Did you bring it?” you ask excitedly, bouncing a bit in place.

He rolls his eyes exaggeratedly. “Of course I did, chill out,” as he speaks, he pulls a large, leather-bound book out from his satchel, “You know, with how excited you get about this every time, I’m beginning to think that you don’t actually know how to read...”

You swat his arm, scoffing, “I know how to read, asshole. It’s just better when you do it for me.”

“Sure, sure. You’ve definitely convinced me. Absolutely.”

You heave a dramatic sigh. “Just start reading, you jerk. I’ve had a hell of a day, and I just want to forget about it for a little while.”

He raises his eyebrows at you, clearly an invitation to share what you meant, but obligingly moves to open the book to the marked page regardless. You remain stubbornly silent, and he rolls his eyes before speaking.

“Will you please just tell me what’s on your mind and make this easier on the both of us?” he says, meeting your eyes head on for the first time that day. You hold his gaze, refusing to speak, as the staring contest begins.

The silence only lasts for a few seconds before you break.

“My parents have started looking at candidates for my betrothal.” You can’t maintain eye contact with him as you speak, fiddling with the hem of your shirt.

He falls silent for a few, long moments.

“Ah. I see.”

“And it’s not fair!” you exclaim suddenly, finding that the dam has broken now that you’ve begun to speak, “I’ve only just turned sixteen! I don’t want to start thinking about the rest of my life right now, not when I haven’t even finished figuring out who I am yet!”

Techno looks at you, expression unreadable, but remains silent. You press on, tears beginning to well up in your eyes.

“What if they choose somebody that I don’t like, and then I’m stuck with them for the rest of my life? What if they expect me to play pretty, quiet homemaker for them, and I never get to see the world outside of this town? What if they’re jealous, or mean?” You heave a shuddering breath, “What if they won’t let me spend time with you anymore?”

You see Techno’s arm reach for you hesitantly through your tears, before he awkwardly pats you on the shoulder. “I-I’m sure that your parents will take your feelings into account when making a choice...”

You sniffled. “Yeah, I guess...” You wipe your eyes, trying to get your breathing back under control. All the while, Techno sits next to you silently, his hand still on your shoulder, thumb running gently back and forth soothingly. It doesn’t seem like he realizes he’s doing this, gaze far away, looking like he’s very much deep in thought.

Just as you’re getting yourself back under control enough to start feeling embarrassed about your outburst, Techno abruptly stands up.

“I need to go,” he says, “I just remembered there’s something I need to do at home.”

“What?” you say, almost bursting into tears again, reaching out for and snagging the hem of his sleeve, “Can’t you stay for just a little longer? Can we read just one chapter?”

You give him your very best puppy dog eyes, but he holds firm, though his expression of steely determination does soften slightly.

“Starling,” You freeze at the use of the familiar nickname, so rarely uttered any longer. “Do you trust me?”

Techno is uncharacteristically serious in this moment, red eyes boring into yours. You find yourself nodding without really thinking too much about it, struck dumb for the moment with the nickname still echoing in your ears. He gives you the smallest hint of a smile, quickly detaching your grip from his sleeve in order to hold your hand loosely in his own.

“Then trust me when I say that everything is going to be just fine,” he says as he begins backing away from you, keeping a hold of your hand until the last possible second, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As he turns around and walks away, you remain seated on the hill, watching his figure disappear from view, becoming nothing more than a smudge of pink in your eye-line before vanishing entirely, wondering all the while what, exactly, he has up his sleeve.

You watch as several expressions flicker over his face in rapid succession. Confusion and wariness morph into a spark of recognition, which then turns to disbelief and hope.

“...Starling?” he breathes out, as though hardly daring to believe it. Struck dumb, all you can do is nod frantically, tears welling up in your eyes, one hand coming up to cover your mouth in an attempt to muffle your sobs.

In three long strides, Technoblade has made his way over to where you’re standing, one hand reaching out hesitantly to cup your cheek. “Gods above, look at you,” he says reverently, “You’re just as lovely as I remembered.”

Unable to hold back any longer, you fling yourself forward, crashing against his chest. He catches you with a surprised grunt.

“I thought you were dead,” you sob.

His arms close around you tightly. You feel him exhale a breathy laugh into your hair as he says, “Technoblade never dies.”

You get a few more blissful seconds in his arms before someone clears their throat behind the pair of you.

“Uh, my liege...?” the new voice says, hesitantly, “We’re prepared to head back to camp now. Will you be joining us, or...?”

You feel Techno sigh against your hair. He loosens his hold on you just enough to turn and face the newcomer, but his arm is still holding you tight to his side. Suddenly becoming aware of the rather large audience there to witness your reunion, your face begins to flush a deep red. You bury your face in Technoblade’s side, mortified. Mind still reeling from the combination of shock and embarrassment, you don’t process a single word being spoken above your head, not really coming back to the present moment until Techno nudges you gently.

“Did you hear a word I just said, Starling?” he asks you gently. You shake your head wordlessly. He sighs again, but it sounds fond.

“We’ll be heading back to camp for the night, and then heading back to the Capitol as soon as we can break the camp down, so probably in a couple of days,” Techno says, and your heart drops. You had just gotten him back, and he was already leaving again. Unaware of your inner turmoil, he continues on, “You’ll probably need some warmer clothes, it gets pretty cold that far north, and we’ll have to have you fitted for a ring, in the Empire’s colours....”

He continues to ramble on, as you pause in your despairing thoughts, blink, and interject his spiel.

“Wait, hold on-- you... want me to come with you?”

He stops speaking, clearly caught off guard, before hesitantly beginning again. “Uh, yeah? Do... do you not want to?”

“No, no!” you hurry to reassure, “I want to! I just—I’ll have to pack my things up... and the house will need to be taken care of. Oh, and I’ll have to let Mrs. Leetch know I won’t be back to work, and--”

Techno cuts off your rambling before it can get too frantic, cupping your cheek with a gentle expression. “Alright, calm down. We’ll get it all sorted, I promise. I’ll have some of my men help you out with moving your things and whatever else you need done around the house, and I’m sure Niki would be happy to help you out with packing your personal possessions.”

“Sire, surely you can’t be serious--” the soldier who interrupted earlier begins, before Technoblade whirls around on him, expression hard and eyes blazing. “Think carefully about your next words, soldier,” he practically snarls, “if you aren’t careful, they might be your last.”

The man gulps. “N-nothing to add, sire. Sorry, sire. I’ll ask Lord Craft to begin mobilizing the rest of the battalion back towards camp.” The man scurries away, throwing a single, fearful glance over his shoulder as he approaches the crowd of troops. Techno watches him go the whole way, expression cold and steely. It’s an expression you’ve never seen him wear before; you don’t like it.

Returning his gaze to you, the expression practically melts off of his face, leaving only gentle eyes behind. “May I walk you home?” he asks, voice a pleasantly deep rumble. You can do nothing but nod, snuggling deeper into his side as you begin to lead the way back to your house.

The windows are dark at the house once you arrive, and Techno’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“Are your parents out of town, Starling? I would have liked to say hello at least before I steal you away,” he says with a sardonic grin. You smile back, a little strained, and begin playing with the hemline of your top, a nervous habit you’ve never managed to kick. Techno’s smile falls, and he takes your hand in his.

When you look up to meet his eyes, he quirks an eyebrow up in lieu of asking you verbally to tell him what’s the matter. You take a deep breath in, bracing yourself. Might as well just come out and say it, you think.

“My parents, they uh... there was a sickness, about three years ago now and they—they didn’t make it.”

“Oh, Starling...” Techno says, clutching your hand even tighter, “I’m sorry to hear that. Have you been alone all this time?”

Again, you nod, tears welling up in your eyes once more. “Gods, I wish I could have found you sooner,” he says, sounding as heartbroken as a man as even-toned as him can get.

Moving slowly, enough so that you could pull away if you wanted, Techno pulls you back into an embrace, and you allow yourself to cry into his shoulder for a few long moments before attempting to compose yourself.

Pulling away from him slightly, but remaining in the circle of his arms, you look to his face and ask, “Would you like to come inside a while?”

Regretfully, he shakes his head. “I need to be getting back to camp before the sun sets or else they’ll worry. Especially Wilbur, that mother hen.”

As though he can sense your growing disappointment, he continues on, “But, I’ll be back here tomorrow, mid-morning, to start getting you packed up and ready to move. Sound good?”

“Yeah, alright,” you say, “I can live with that.”

You pull away from him incrementally, his grip sliding down your arms to your hands as you step away from his embrace, clinging onto the tips of his fingers for as long as you can before letting your hands fall to your sides. It still doesn’t really feel real, like as soon as you turn your back on him, he’ll vanish. You say as much, and Techno smiles, just the barest hint of a thing, replying with, “I know. I feel the same.”

He takes a breath in, and makes eye contact with you again, stepping once again into your arms reach to take your hands, ruby red eyes boring into yours. “Do you still trust me?” he asks, and you tell him you do. Of course you do.

“Then trust me when I say that this is all real, and that I’ll see you in the morning. Now, go inside. It’s getting chilly.”

You allow yourself to squeeze his hands one last time before dropping them entirely, turning around, and walking up the stairs to unlock the door to your house. As you open the door, you turn to look over your shoulder at Technoblade, only to find him already staring at you.

He raises a hand. “Goodnight, Starling,” he says softly, “sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.” And then he turns and begins to walk away, towards the outskirts of town. You stand in the doorway until his silhouette has vanished into the setting sun before you enter your home, and begin your evening routine.

As you close your eyes in bed, you think back over the events of the evening, and for the first time in a long while, you go to sleep looking forward to tomorrow.

Sooo... What do you think so far? Most of this is pre written, so it'll be easy to keep up with the posting schedule. I'm really proud of it!

#technoblade x reader #technoblade imagine #technoblade x y/n #technoblade x you #mcyt imagine #mcyt x reader #mcyt x you #grey's rambles

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grey-rambles · 2 years ago

Text

Of First Loves and Second Chances

Chapter Two

Words: ~5.5k

Warnings: Some swearing, but nothing else so far as I can remember for this chapter

Notes: Chapter two!! This chapter is the first one that I worked on about a month after Techno had passed, so if there’s inconsistencies in tone, that’s why.... Should I make a taglist for this fic? Do enough people want that for it to be worth my time? Please let me know.

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Masterlist | Requests

Seven Years Ago...

It had been a couple of weeks since Techno’s abrupt disappearance from your meeting place, and everything had gone back to normal starting the next day. You had almost forgotten about the whole thing, to be honest.

On your way out the door to run some errands down in the market (and maybe pop in to visit Techno at his family’s bookstore...), your mother called out to your back from where she was seated in the parlour, “Oh, darling, hurry back! We’re having dinner with your betrothed's family tonight, and you need to look your best!”

You whirled around to face her. “WHAT?! You chose someone? And you didn’t even think to tell me in advance??”

You mother smiles slightly and takes another sip of her tea, apparently entirely unbothered by your outburst. “Well, darling, it is traditional for it to be kept secret until everything is set in stone,” she says with a small laugh, “Plus, have some faith in your father and I; we think you’ll be quite pleased with our choice.”

Staring at your mother for a moment, taking in her secretive (and somewhat smug) expression, you determine that she wasn’t going to break and tell you anything, so you don’t even bother to try. You turn back around and continue out the door.

Heading towards the market, your thoughts are racing to the point that you barely register your surroundings. Almost on autopilot, your body makes its way to Techno’s family’s bookstore, where you step inside and immediately make your way to the desk at the back.

It isn’t the figure you expect that greets you at the back. Fairly recently, Techno’s dad had brought on a young man, Alex, to assist the family in running the shop, and it’s him that’s standing behind the desk when you walk in.

“Um,” you begin hesitantly as you approach, “is Techno around?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, the whole family’s out today. Said they had some big event to get ready for or something.”

Silence falls for a moment, awkward and stifling, before Alex continues, “Can I... help you find anything?”

You shake your head, turn on your heel and walk out, trying to keep frustrated tears from welling up in your eyes. As you go about your errands, your thoughts ricochet wildly between two trains of thought; who your betrothed-to-be was, and what special event Techno’s family could have been preparing for.

Your parents knew you well enough that there’s no way that they would have gone with Jeremiah or Marjory, right? You had certainly complained about the two of them enough. Although... both of their families were fairly wealthy, which would have made them more appealing candidates. Caleb or Matthew wouldn’t be so bad, you supposed, and neither would Josephine or Lillian, although you had never been friends with or spent much time around any of them. The only person you could imagine enjoying spending the rest of your life around was currently missing....

Actually now that you thought about it, what could Techno’s family possibly be getting ready for? To your knowledge, there were no special events going on in town today, no celebrations at any of the temples. Techno was an only child, and you knew for a fact that it wasn’t his birthday, nor his parents birthdays. Could it be his parents’ anniversary maybe...? No, that wasn’t until the fall. A mystery indeed....

Shaking your head to clear it of the spiralling thoughts, you set course for home, errands now complete.

Upon arriving inside the front door of your home, you were approached by your very frazzled looking mother, who immediately chided you for having been out so long, before thrusting you into the bathroom to begin getting ready for dinner. A part of you wanted to snark back that it was only 1pm and that there was no way you would begin eating before six, but you didn’t think that it would be received very well, so you kept it to yourself.

After bathing thoroughly in the bathroom, you proceed back to your bedroom, where your mother has laid out some clothes for you to wear. You put them on slowly, grimacing at the fancy fabric and high collar, so unlike your usual comfortable attire. Taking a glance in the mirror, you’re comforted to find that the clothes fit well, and compliment your colouring; if you can’t be comfortable, at least you look nice.

Your mother enters then, and you allow her a couple of minutes to fuss over your appearance before you shrug her hands off. “It’s not gonna get any better than this, stop it.”

Your mother lets out a sigh, eyes misty. “I just want everything to be perfect for tonight, Gods, my little one, all grown up,” she sniffles, “Now come, darling, let me fix your hair, it’s in a right state.”

You suppress the urge to groan, taking a seat at the desk in the corner and allowing your mother to get to work.

Time passes by both incredibly slowly and far too quickly, and before you know it, you’ve been polished top to bottom, and your mother is leading you down to the parlour to meet your new fiancé. Your father meets the two of you outside the doors, a broad smile overtaking his face at the sight of you.

“You look wonderful, my dear,” your father says, “He’ll be blown away, I’m sure.”

You take a deep breath, steeling your nerves. “Let’s just get this over with,” you say, and your father obliges, pushing open the door. You file in at the rear, gaze on the floor. One last deep breath in, and you bring your eyes up to look at your future head on.

Your heart stops.

“Techno?”

Because that was certainly who was stood before you, looking a little awkward and uncomfortable in his formal wear, his parents flanking him on either side, much like your own were doing for you. His hair was styled in a much more intricate braid than usual, jewellery glinting on his throat and wrists, and his plain poet's shirt was topped with a waistcoat of brilliant blue. That the colour complimented your own attire was not lost on you.

“Uh,” he began awkwardly, all eyes on him, “surprise?”

You could do nothing but stare in shock at your best friend in all the world, and also, suddenly, your fiancé? A static sound filled your ears. Everything was suddenly overwhelming, the scent of dinner wafting from the kitchen, the feel of the high collar around your throat, choking you, the sight of those red eyes.

Feeling nothing other than the urge to get away, you turned and bolted out the door.

Hearing the shocked cries of your parents behind you, you pushed your body to move faster, to get further away from the overwhelming situation you had found yourself in, body moving almost on instinct out the front doors and into the street, towards the only place you had ever felt truly like yourself.

Seeing it come into view, you begin to slow. Walking the last few yards, you collapse to the ground underneath the tree atop the hill, legs like jelly. Eyes gazing over the river unseeingly, mind reeling, you finally allow yourself to begin processing what had just happened.

You weren’t necessarily... unhappy with your parents decision. The biggest thing, was that Techno had kept it from you. Or had he not known either? He certainly seemed to know ahead of time with the way he had responded to your shock. You trusted him completely, and tradition be damned, he should have at least let you know that his family had put in a bid! Did he not trust you to keep a secret?

A few minutes of silent contemplation later, you hear familiar footsteps approaching behind you.

“Thought I might find you here,” Techno’s voice comes gently from behind you. You keep your gaze resolutely forward, on the last vestiges of the sunset on the river, as he walks up beside you and has a seat. You deliberately move a little further away from him once he’s seated, still keeping your eyes locked on the water, and he sighs.

“I take it you’re unhappy with the situation then?” Techno asks, voice uncharacteristically serious, “I can ask our parents to call the whole thing off if you’d prefer. I just thought you might be happier with it being me than some stranger that you--”

“It’s not that,” you interrupt him mid sentence, still refusing to look at him.

“Well, what is it then?” he says, exasperated. “How am I supposed to fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong?”

Finally, you turn to face him. “You knew.”

He blinks, clearly not expecting the conversation to go in this direction. “Uh, yeah?”

“You knew, and you didn’t tell me? I’ve been agonizing over this for weeks! Did you not trust me to keep it a secret?”

“To be fair,” Techno says, awkwardly scratching at the back of his neck, “I didn’t know that the bid had been accepted until this morning.”

“But you never told me that there was even a bid in the first place!”

“I didn’t want to get your hopes up okay? If I had told you we were bidding, if I had given you that hope, and then someone else won, you would have been crushed! I didn’t expect things to move so fast once everything was sorted out, I thought I’d have a chance to let you know privately before the official first meeting!”

At your stony silence, he continues on, far more emotional than usual, “Look, I’m sorry for keeping it from you okay? But you just... you seemed so sad and stressed out when you told me about the whole thing, that I thought if I could convince my parents to bid, then at least there was a chance you wouldn’t end up marrying a stranger that you weren’t even sure if you liked.

“And besides,” he continues on, a little quieter, a little more steady in tone, “my parents were starting to talk about looking for a match for me too. It just made sense to suggest you-- at least I actually like you, which is more than I can say for pretty much everyone else our age around here. And I think--” here he pauses and takes a deep breath-- “I think that I could learn to love you. Like, romantically. I don’t right now, but I think that I could, if you’d give me the chance.”

You stare into his eyes, and find nothing but open honesty there.

Looking away, you mutter, “Alright, fine. We’ll give it a try.” You can practically feel Techno relax next to you.

You scoot a little closer to him, your sides almost touching now. Still looking at your lap, you begin to fiddle with the lace edging on your sleeve as you speak again. “I think I could too. Fall in love with you, I mean.”

Techno puts a hesitant arm around your waist. “Th-that’s good,” he says.

A comfortable silence falls over the two of you for a time, as you lean your head against his shoulder and return your gaze out over the water. After a time, Techno shifts around beside you and moves to stand, offering you his hand once he’s up.

“We should be getting back, it’s almost dark and I’m sure our parents are worried.”

You sigh, but knowing that he’s right, you accept his help to stand, then the two of you stand and begin to make your way back down the hill and towards your house.

After only a couple minutes of walking, Techno clears his throat, prompting you to look over at him. Refusing to meet your eyes, with cheeks flushed a very fetching shade of pale pink, he awkwardly forces out, “You, uh, you look. Really nice. By the way.”

You feel a matching flush spread up your own face. “Oh, thank-you. Um. So do you.” He nods stiffly in return, and you lapse into silence.

Nothing else is said as Techno and you make your way through the city back towards your home. You’re walking so closely together that your hands are brushing every few steps, and after the third or fourth time this happens, you take the initiative and simply grab hold of his hand, lacing your fingers together. You assume that he mustn't mind this, seeing as he didn’t say a word against it when you had first grabbed his hand, and the fact that when you had looked to him to confirm it was okay, you found his face flushed red.

About a block away from your house, Techno abruptly stops and tugs you into a secluded little alcove. It’s dark, only illuminated by a single lamp and a couple dim lights from the surrounding houses.

“Tech? We’re almost back, why did you stop us here?”

He fiddles with something in his pocket for a moment, eyes downcast, before abruptly thrusting a small square object towards you. “I just. Here.”

Taking it from him slowly, he continues on, almost seeming nervous. “It’s traditional to do this in front of family, but I thought you might like something more private. Once you take a look, I can put it back in my pocket and we can pretend that you’re seeing it for the first time once we get back. I just... hope you like it.”

Suddenly, you realize what this is. Slowly and with bated breath, you open the small box. Inside, as you expected, is a ring. Taking a step towards the light to see it better, you give a small gasp when the piece of jewellery is illuminated.

It’s made of silver, gleaming under the light of the lamp. In the centre sits a moderately sized ruby, vine like protrusions surrounding it in elegant swirls. The ruby has a small chip of diamond on either side, nestled in the twists of the vines. On the inside, you can see an inscription, and you tilt the box further into the light until you can read what it says; “For my Starling”.

Techno walks up behind you, appearing relatively nervous. “Alex—you know, the guy who my parents hired to help at the shop? Well, his dad is a silversmith, so he helped me out with making the mould and casting it. I designed it mostly by myself, with some input from Alex and his dad, and--”

You cut him off. “You made this for me?”

“Uh. Yeah? It’s traditional to gift a ring for a betrothal, but if you’d prefer, I can take it back and recast it into a necklace or something.”

“No!” you exclaim, clutching the box to your chest, “It’s beautiful, I love it.” Thrusting the box abruptly into Techno’s hands, you say, “Put it on me, please.”

His eyes widen. He takes the box from you and pulls the ring out of the cushion it had been resting on. The ruby glints where the light hits it; it almost matches Techno’s eyes.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until we get back for this part?” Techno asks you, “Our parents might be pissed that we went against tradition and did this without them.”

“Screw tradition. I’ve never wanted to wear a piece of jewellery more in my life, and if you don’t put it on me in the next ten seconds, I will rip it from your hands and do it myself.”

“Okay, okay. Message received, loud and clear.”

Techno gently takes your left hand in his own. He slips the ring onto your ring finger, where it sits, smooth and cold, against your skin. You take a moment to admire the way it looks against your skin, before a thought occurs to you.

“Hey Techno?”

“Yeah?”

“If you didn’t know that your bid had been accepted until this morning, how come you have a customized ring?”

It’s hard to tell in the dark, but you think he blushes again. “Uh, well. I was kinda planning on giving it to you regardless of who your parents chose...?”

This startles a laugh out of you. “What do you mean?”

“Well, like I said earlier, I can’t really see myself with anybody else in this town, so if your parents had chosen anyone other than me as your betrothed, I was going to ask you to run away with me. We’d get married in the next town over, and never have to worry about it again.

“Thankfully,” he’s quick to add when he sees your expression, “it didn’t come to that, so all’s well.”

And with that, he grabs your hand again, and practically drags you out of the alcove and over to your house. His ears, the only part of his skin you can see, are crimson in the lamplight.

Your parents are less than pleased with the whole situation, both you having stormed out earlier, and the fact that Techno had given you the ring without them present. Listening to your mother rant about “the gall of you young people, besmirching tradition like that”, you catch Techno’s eye from across the room, where he’s getting a similar talking to from his own mother. He rolls his eyes subtly, and you have to suppress the urge to smile.

Once everything has died down a bit later, you find yourself seated next to Techno on the drawing room couch. Moving close enough that your arm is pressed up against his, just barely, you look down at your ring again. The ruby almost dances in the firelight, and you think to yourself that you’ve maybe never been happier than in this moment.

Looking forward to your future, you were excited to spend the rest of it with Techno by your side.

It’s a shame you only got a little over nine months before everything fell apart.

The next couple of days pass in a blur of packing. Niki, a bubbly young woman who works for the army, has been by your side throughout, helping you to organize everything that needed to get done before you could leave this place behind. You were very grateful for her help, certain that you wouldn’t have been able to accomplish half of what needed to be done without her assistance.

Throughout it all, you had seen only glimpses of Technoblade. He was busy helping them break down the main military encampment, Niki explained when you asked her, which you supposed made sense, but that didn’t mean you had to be happy about it. He stopped by briefly each day around noon hour to check in on the progress you were making, but with so much going on, you didn’t have any time to exchange more than pleasantries with him.

There were so many questions that you had for him, namely, what had happened to him after your separation, but this was far too public of a venue for you to even consider asking him about it, so you resigned yourself to waiting until you could be alone.

On the dawn of the fourth day, you found yourself out of bed as the sun was rising, just as you had been instructed. The few personal belongings that you couldn’t bear to be without were packed into a small bag waiting by your feet.

You could see a horse approaching in the distance, though it was still too far away to clearly make out who the rider might be. After a couple more minutes of waiting, it became apparent that it was Techno, and you felt your stomach swoop.

He urged his horse to stop in front of you, before dismounting and shooting you a grin.

“Good morning, Starling. Are you ready to leave this place behind?” At your nod, he offers you a hand, which you don’t hesitate to take. He quickly helps you up into the saddle of the horse, getting your feet situated in a set of stirrups, before vaulting himself up to sit behind you.

You feel your face flush as his body settles against your back, pressed tightly together from shoulders to hips. Techno reaches an arm on either side of you to grab the reins, effectively boxing you in, and you feel your blush deepen, suddenly glad there’s no one around to witness your departure.

“All set?” he murmurs in your ear. You can do nothing but nod as goosebumps rise up on your arms.

Techno urges the horse into motion, and soon you’re trotting through town at a decent clip. Having never ridden many horses before, you’re having a hard time not getting jostled around too much, and it seems that Techno notices this, because he once again leans in to speak into your ear.

“You need to let your body move with the motion of the horse. Stop trying to hold yourself so rigidly, just relax.”

Taking his advice to heart, you slowly relax back into him, until you’re leaning your back quite heavily against his front. It is more comfortable to ride this way, you’ll admit.

You can hear the smile in his voice as he says, “There you go, that’s it.”

Pretty soon, you’re hitting the edge of town, and Techno urges the horse into a canter. The countryside flies by around you, turning quickly into woods, before you come into a clearing where the military camp had been.

The last of the tents look to be coming down upon your arrival, and a few men call out greetings as they pass by, though no one stops to chat. The whole place is alive with noise and activity; it’s a little overwhelming.

Techno navigates the horse through the chaos to the centre of the encampment, where he dismounts quickly and hands the reins to a passerby, before offering you a hand to help you down. You miss his warmth against your back immediately.

Just as Technoblade opens his mouth to speak, a smaller figure scurries up behind him and jumps on his back, screeching, “Surprise, bitch!!”. Techno barely moves with the impact, only to let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Tommy, get off of me.” He jostles the boy a few times until he jumps back down to the ground next to Techno, grinning broadly. “Go grab Phil and Wilbur for me, there’s someone I want to introduce you to.”

“No need for that mate,” a new voice pipes up from behind you, and two more strangers come and join your little circle, “We’re already here.”

“Is this them? The infamous Starling?” The brown-haired man peers at you curiously, almost uncomfortable in its intensity. You shy back from his unwavering gaze, just a little.

Techno must notice your discomfort at the scrutiny, because he’s immediately stepping over to you and pulling you close to his side. “Wilbur, back off. You’re making them uncomfortable.”

Suitably chastised, the brown-haired man takes a step away, raising his hands defensively. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make anyone uncomfortable. But you can’t blame me for being curious, ol’ Techie here has been talking about the mysterious Starling for years!”

“Don’t call me that, please,” Techno sighs out, already seeming done with this interaction, “before I regret deciding to introduce you in the first place.”

The others all laugh. You take a moment to observe their appearances, and it’s with a start that you notice that the shortest of the group has absolutely massive, black-as-night wings protruding from his back.

Noticing your stare, the older man smiles and says, “How’s it going, mate?”

“You have wings,” you blurt out, then cover your mouth, mortified. Across from you, Tommy breaks into snickers, which abruptly taper off after getting a glare from Technoblade.

“Yeah, I do,” the man replies, an amused grin on his face, “I’m Phil, by the way. Official advisor to his Royal Majesty here.” He gestures with his head towards Techno, and your eyes go wide.

“Wait, what?” you whirl around on your old friend. “What does he mean, Royal Majesty?”

Techno looks decidedly awkward now, bringing a hand up to scratch the back of his neck. “Um.”

“Did he not tell you?” Wilbur asked with a laugh. At the look of confusion on your face, his manic grin grew even wider. “Oh, this is too good!”

“I was going to tell them,” Techno protested, “But everything was happening so fast, there just wasn’t a good time...”

“Tell me what?” you demand, growing irritated with being in the dark. Pushing out of Techno’s grip, you whirl around the circle the four of them are standing in; nobody makes eye contact with you. “Will somebody please explain what’s going on here?”

Techno takes a deep breath in and takes one of your hands, looking you in the eyes. “I’m the Emperor of the Antarctic Empire,” he says seriously.

You let out a short laugh. “No you’re not.”

He blinks. In the background, Wilbur snorts into his fist, only to be promptly elbowed by Phil. Tommy, meanwhile, just looks confused and slightly offended.

“But... I literally am though,” Techno says slowly. You shake your head. Do they really think you’re dumb enough to buy this?

“No seriously,” he says, holding out his hand. There, on his finger, sits the insignia of the Royal House of the Antarctic. The boar’s head etched in gold gleams in the early morning light, and you suddenly feel quite faint.

Looking up to meet Techno’s eyes, you see in their depths mostly fond amusement, but also a hint of... uncertainty?

Taking a deep breath in and giving Techno’s hand a squeeze of reassurance, you utter the words, “Technoblade. What the fuck.”

Tommy bursts into laughter behind you.

“How? How is this possible??” you continue on, ignoring the antics of everyone else present except for your betrothed. He seems uncomfortable with the scrutiny, but still you press on. “What on earth have you been up to since I saw you last?”

Techno chuckles a bit. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“I trust you’ll tell it to me sometime,” you reply, and he nods to you in affirmation, a hesitant smile on his face.

“Let me introduce you properly to the three stooges here,” Techno says, pivoting around to face them, arm dropping back around your waist.

“You’ve already been introduced to Lord Phillip Craft, my most trusted and closest advisor.” The winged man gives you a little wave and says “Please, just call me Phil.”

Gesturing his arm out to the tallest among them, Techno continues on, “This is Lord Wilbur Soot, my head diplomat. He helped secure the peace deal that granted us your city without siege.” Wilbur smiles at you and extends a hand to shake. When you take it, he instead brings the back of your hand up to his lips for a kiss.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he says with a smirk, eye-line fixed not on you, but on the man standing rigidly next to you.

“Wilbur please,” Techno says, long suffering. At these words, the man’s smirk only widens. You pull your hand away, face blazing, and tuck yourself more firmly into Techno’s side.

“Moving on,” Techno begins, only to be interrupted by Tommy’s exclamation of, “Yeah, my turn, bitch!”

Unperturbed by the interruption, Techno continues on, “This is Tommy Innit--”

“The absolute biggest man ever!”

“—my personal valet.”

Tommy wilts at the description. “You make me sound so uncool, man!”

“It is an accurate description of your job, I don’t see the problem here,” Techno replies. Despite the callousness of his words, there’s a small but undoubtedly fond smile on his lips.

“It’s lovely to meet you all,” you speak up for the first time in a while. You would have said more, but you’re interrupted by the arrival of a man on horseback.

“My Lords, Your Highness,” the man says, bowing as best he can from on horseback, “the camp has been broken down and your carriages are ready if you’re ready to head for home.”

“Thank-you,” Phil says, “we’ll be right over. You’re dismissed.”

The man bows again, casting a curious gaze over you as he rides off.

Techno turns to face you. “Shall we go, then?”

You nod, and your group begins to head towards the edge of the clearing, where two carriages await.

“Can I ride in with you, Techno?” Tommy asks, wide eyed, hanging off of Techno’s arm. The man in question barely seems to notice the added weight, moving along with his eyes forward and a look of fond exasperation on his face.

“No, Tommy.”

“Aw, but why not? You wouldn’t mind, would you?” Tommy turns his big, blue eyes onto you, and you feel yourself being swayed.

You turn to Technoblade to say that you wouldn’t mind, and he rolls his eyes at the look on your face. Turning back to Tommy, who’s looking on expectantly, Techno says, “Fine. But if you pester them too much, I’m kicking you out.”

Tommy cheers, throwing his hands up in the air, and you can’t help but smile at his antics.

You get loaded up into one of the carriages to wait while the others finish up some last minute preparations before you’re off. Techno slides into the carriage across from you, Tommy throwing himself onto the seat next to him; you assume that Phil and Wilbur are riding in the other carriage.

Tommy keeps up a nearly ceaseless stream of chatter, while Techno busies himself with a hardback book he’s pulled out from somewhere. You can’t help but smile at that—some things never change.

Tommy spends the next couple of hours chatting to you about life in the Empire, and about all the places he’s seen while traveling with the Emperor. He talks a little about how he came into service of the Royal House, though it’s fairly obvious to you that he’s skipped out on some of the details, and a lot about his two best friends back at the palace and the antics that they get up to.

Other than disputing some of Tommy’s wilder stories with a snort or a head shake, Techno remains silent, eyes focused on his book. It’s obvious that he’s listening, however, due to how rarely he’s turning the pages.

Tommy’s come to a natural pause in his rambling when his eyes alight on something on your lap. Lightning quick, the boy leans across the carriage cabin and picks your left hand up to examine it.

“Yo!!” he exclaims, eyes alight with excitement, “Your ring is sick!! Where did you get it? Is that a real ruby?”

Technoblade’s head snaps up from his book. The ruby glints in the sunlight, just as bright as the day you received it, and he stares at it with a strange look on his face.

“You still have it,” Techno says blankly, almost seeming surprised.

You blink, uncertain. “Of course I do. I never take it off.”

Tommy looks between the two of you, visibly confused. He opens his mouth as though to ask a question, when the carriage abruptly shudders to a stop. Wilbur peeks his head through the window, saying, “Time for lunch!” brightly, before vanishing from sight again.

After retrieving some bread and cheese from the cook’s wagon, you retreat again to the safety of your carriage. As you’re finishing up your meal, Techno once again joins you. This time, instead of sliding in across from you, he sits stiffly on the bench next to you, arms just barely touching, and you’re instantly transported back to your parents' drawing room on that night seven years ago, back when you first received your ring.

Leaning further into Techno’s side, you rest your head on his shoulder and twine your fingers with his. He relaxes minutely against you, and pulls his book back out from a pocket in his cloak. As he’s opening it up, Tommy pops back into the carriage, and makes a face at the sight of you.

“Wilbur! I’m riding with you guys now, these two are being all gross and shit!”

You feel Techno huff out a laugh, before he finds his place in the book and begins to read aloud. Shifting around to get more comfortable, you end up nestled under Techno’s arm with your head on his chest as he leans against the side of the carriage; he never falters in his recitation during this, voice remaining even and soft throughout.

You close your eyes and allow his words to paint the picture of the story on your eyelids. This, accompanied by his heartbeat and the gentle rumble of his chest as he speaks soon lull you into a state of drowsy contentedness.

As you allow yourself to drift off to sleep, you once again think to yourself that, much like the night of your betrothal, you’ve never been happier than you are in this moment.

I hope you liked it! The next chapter will be up around the same time next wekk! So, that’s Sunday evening around 5:30pm EST. All feedback is appreciated :)

#technoblade x y/n #technoblade x reader #technoblade imagine #technoblade x you #mcyt imagine #mcyt x you #mcyt x reader #mcyt x y/n #grey's rambles

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