Apples of the Earth: A Technoblade x Reader (ON HIATUS)

Chapter 22: The Fall

It was the night of the 2nd ball, and Technoblade was nowhere to be found. His room was empty, clothes scattered on his bed and his cloak missing from the back of his chair. The kitchen was busy preparing food, so Techno would avoid the stress and commotion. The gardens were quiet, but searching there proved fruitless. Wilbur had gone down early to begin greeting guests while Phil searched for his younger brother, and Tommy had opted to stay in Tubbo's room with his friend and skip the ball entirely. Kristin had joined Phil at the beginning of the search, but eventually left to join Wilbur in greeting the guests. Phil didn't mind, it was probably for the best. 

Phil was passing an open window, the glass tinted with the colours of the kingdom's flag, when he heard a shrill voice yell "DADZA!". Turning to the window sill, Phil was disappointed to see a jet back crow, its shiny eyes staring right back into his own. A feeling of dread grew in the pit of his stomach as another appeared, then another, and then another. Before he knew it, a flock of birds were on the sill or flying around the open window, casting a shadow over Philza. The dread only worsened as the entire flock began yelling.

"DADZA!"
"Is mumza here?"
"PHIL!"
"POG"
"E"
"Where's Techno?"
"Techno content???"

"Alright, shut up! I'm looking for Techno right now, you're welcome to join the search."

"...Nah."
"Sounds boring."
"Blindza"
"I'LL HELP"
"E"
"Poor old man Phil can't find Technoblade"
"So no Techno content?"
"HELLO PHILZA MINECRAFT"

"Just go look for him, ya little shits.", Phil commanded, and half the flock flew off to search. Unfortunately for Phil, the other half stayed and angrily squawked at him. A poor servant a little ways down the hall dropped what he was carrying and ran off around a corner, muttering a plethora of 'nope's under his breath. Many misfortunes had befell a fair share of workers in the castle, so everyone knew the consequences of trying to shoo away any crows around the castle. That was just how it was.

Phil managed to shove the last few persistent crows out the window and slam it shut. Though the crows could obviously break through if they tried, they were too afraid of the colourful barrier Phil had just placed in front of them, preventing them from getting back in. The entire flock unanimously agreed on avoiding the invisible or coloured barriers that were scattered around the castle wall. Phil was lucky that his avian genes weren't strong enough to meddle with his eye-sight. Well, not too much at least. He would never live down the several times he's walked into the glass windows of shops, having not noticed them; Tommy made sure of that. 

Phil continued his frantic search around the castle before he was approaching the guards' barracks, in need of more help since the crows seemed to be doing absolutely fuck all. It was then that he heard the sounds of blunt steel crunching through wood. Following the sounds, Phil approached the armoury and training grounds. There, he saw a hunched figure, metal staff in clenched hands with bruised knuckles. Their entire body seemed to heave with their laboured breaths, long stands of cherry-blossom hair curtaining their face. A white shirt lay discarded on the floor, having been deemed a nuisance earlier. Before Techno's panting figure laid what was previously a new training dummy made of wood and straw. However, all that remained was splintered would and trampled hay. 

"Mate, you know those are for training techniques, not just beating the shit out of?", Phil rhetorically aske. Techno seemed to snap out of a trance, a violent trance, as his head snapped towards Phil. His staff fell to the floor with a clatter, rolling to a stop next to the remains of the unfortunate training dummy. "Why're you out here, bud? The ball is gonna start any minute now, and you kind of have to be there." Phil waited for Techno to respond, but he seemed to have naught to say. He could hardly look up from an a particularly interesting patch of dirt. 

"Phil, I think I'm dying."
"Woah! The one who claims he never dies thinks he's dying, never thought I'd see it.", Phil joked, but the look on Techno's face was enough for him to conclude the humour wasn't appreciated. "Okay, before we jump to death, what symptoms do you have that make you think you're dying? I know you're too stubborn to go to a doctor, so it isn't absolute." Techno took a moment to figure out how he could word it without sounding silly. Finally he settled on a format. "It isn't just the symptoms. Usually, when I feel stuff like this, an adrenaline rush is enough to get rid of it; Beating the shit out of stuff gets rid of it. But even now, the feeling's still here."
"What feeling?", Phil asked. "I promise I won't laugh or joke, if that's what you're worried about." Techno was relieved that his dad seemed to know what to say.
"... It feels like I've swallowed a bug." Phil looked at him, waiting for elaboration. "To be more specific, it feels like I swallowed a kaleidoscope of butterflies and they're all just going haywire in my stomach. I randomly imagine scenarios with (Y- someone, and my face heats up. But imagining different scenarios with them makes me really happen, makes me wish they were real. Either I've got a weird fever or some sort of virus eating at my brain."

Phil was dead silent. Then came his reaction.

Of all the reactions Techno expected, a hug was not one of them. Neither was listening to Phil talk at him as if he was a baby. Yet there he was, wrapped in a warm embrace with Phil cooing at him. 
"Phil."
His only response was "aww"s and other similar incoherent sounds.
"Phil!"
The same response.
"LOOK A BABY ZOMBIE!"
"WHERE?" Phil was finally out of his mother-bird state, giving Techno a punch in the arm after realising what he did.
"If you're done talking to me like I'm fresh out the womb, would you mind telling me when I'm gonna die?", Techno asked as he came down from his laughing fit. Phil chuckled.

"Mate, you aren't dying. You're falling in love."
Techno's whole world seemed to stop.
I'm in love with her.
There's no way, Phil's just joking, he's gotta be.
I think between love and death, I'd pick death.
I'm such a bad friend. She trusted me and now I'm falling for her.
Oi! Stfu, it's my job to make you feel like shit, not yours. Now steel yourself and go get the girl, main character style!
You make it sound easy.
Cuz it is! Listen, we've lived thousands of lives and basically all of us got asked out or asked someone out while alive. We're experts!
Uh huh.
Shut up. Anyways, just describe to her everything she makes you feel, spare no cheese, and then ask if she wants to go on a date with you! Simple.
Not gonna happen.
Pussy.
I'm leaving now.
Ok, PUSSY-

"Phil please tell me you're joking."
"Sorry mate, I'm not. What you're feeling is what I felt when I met Kristin. I have no other explanation to give. Imagining a life with them, getting butterflies in your stomach, it all adds up to me."
Techno groaned into his hands. Phil couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, the party's probably already started." Techno didn't mind the comforting hand placed on his shoulder as Phil led him back to the castle to get prepared.

As they walked away, the author quickly wrote themself into the book to grab the shirt discarded on the floor, seeing as neither the father or son remembered to grab it and they weren't bothered to go back and rewrite stuff to fit it in.