Your mind raced with thoughts of how to escape after you got trapped.

All the things you could do to struggle flashed across your mind, and with that came the thought of how all the limitless things you could try would put the sweet taste of freedom into your mouth.

Even so, you conked out.

Completely and utterly limp with sleep.

Wow.

Such good self control.

Ten to five minutes of sitting, engulfed in warmth, a slow heartbeat calmly thrumming in your ear and you fell asleep whether you wanted to or not.

Which wasn't surprising.

You worked like a cog- and after a day out and about sleep was next on your body's mind.

So imagine your surprise when you wake up again.

Blearily- half dead- one eye tearing up because you slept on it wrong-

And then the problem makes itself known.

You are very much still in Techno's arms.

Still buried into his collar bone- if even closer after conking out. His pink hair tickled at your nose-

He was definitely closer, head buried into your neck- tusks dragging at the skin there-

He held you closer then one should ever be to him, and you winced when he let out another soft breath.

For such a big tough emotionally deprived person- he certainly loved to sleep cuddled up to something. Which was ironic, but not what you were supposed to be focusing on.

You should be focusing on if you could get out.

Were you trapped?

You can always test.

With a slow movement, you carefully try and part his hand off your waist.

Gently tucking your fingers around his palm, slowly peeling the hand off you.

It was much more pliable then before, so much so that you might just have hope of escaping.

You were still between the wall, which wasn't ideal. You'd have to step over him to get out- or crawl- either or, and neither option felt good to try out.

Your plan of escape froze when Techno's arms stretched out, a stretch to crack the joints in his elbows.

You winced when he took in a deep breath, pulling his face back a bit as he rotated his shoulder blades.

That breath was one that meant he was most certainly awake. Consciousness clearly stirring inside him-

Your focus snapped to his face, and your stomach dropped when his eyes flick open, sagging with a tired you didn't know existed.

Dull red shimmered in the low light, eyes intense even though he just woke.

The red in his eyes settled on you, taking in your face with an unknown thought process. He wasn't fully awake, and his arms re-looped around you to once again pull you close.

You were in pure confusion, limply letting him rebury his head in the crook of your neck. The huff of sleepy breath he let out was hot on your skin.

Did-

Is he even cognitive right now??

He kept his body tucked against you, almost as though attempting to keep sleeping-

But the matter of why you were in his bed had to rise eventually-

And it did.

The sudden ridgedness that twisted through him was evidence he finally realized something was amiss.

He reeled his head back from your neck, eyes dilated with confusion and arms that were around your waist going tense. His nails nearly dug into the skin there, and you could physically see when his mind clicked two and two together, eyes widening- face completely flushing before he instantly rolled off his bed and slung his mask back on.

Panic.

His feet firmly settled on the floor as he stood.

Welp.

That's definitely a reaction.

You sat up before you could awkwardly stay laying down any longer, watching Techno carefully as he straightened his back and turned to face you.

"Just. Just one question for you-" Techno muttered, flinging an arm through his knotted hair in disbelief and tiredness, "What were you doing in my bed?

You rose a finger, "Believe it or not- tryna get out of your bed."

He mouthed the word 'what' in sheer confusion- and if how flushed his ears were was anything to go by- embarrassment.

Or maybe confused as to why you'd betray his trust? Did accidentally sleeping in his bed count as betraying??

You don't know- because you don't know what his limits are- ArGh!

All you knew about his limits was, 'Don't question if I feel things- think I'm the big tough warrior-'

"How did you even get in my bed?" Techno asks after a moment.

"Tommy pushed me, and you just kinda... latched on." You say- your own face finally flushing just as much as Techno's.

Both because the embarrassment of the situation finally caught up, and the fact that your mind lingered on the memory of his arms firmly wrapping around you, pulling closer and closer.

You just about combusted, before you scrambled off his bed, stood next to him for a second, took one glance at his bone mask and took four steps backwards.

His hand flinched at the action.

"I am so sorry- I really did try and get out-" you bowed your head like a caught kid, "Your grip is surprisingly strong when you sleep-"

He took a long moment, just- staring at you- mouth parted the slightest of bits, ears still flushed. His hand rose, almost hesitantly to the collar of his neck.

Right where your head used to be tucked.

He rubbed the skin there, fixing the collar of his shirt like he still felt your head there.

"I..." he started, sounding scarily close to someone with emotions, before he dropped that tone completely (as well as his hand) to talk very much in his usual tone.

"It's whatever."

Your hand lifted into a thumbs up before you could stop it- a nervous strangled noise coming out of your throat as you said, "Okey dokey-"

You both paused to look at each other- Techno running another hand through his hair before letting out a breath and turning to gather supplies in his chest.

Which happened to be on the side you were standing on.

He drew closer, walking steady steps, right past you, shoulder brushing shoulder- and you considered that enough Techno time.

"Coffee...?" You squeak out.

"If you want to make it." Techno murmers-

And faster then you can think, you're out of that room.

Sprinting out, you spot Tommy haphazardly putting redstone blocks everywhere-

You catch his eye and yell, "FREEDOM-" before charging for your little nook and slapping a pot of water onto the furnace.

"How the fuck did you get out??" Tommy yells across the ravine, putting a piston in the ground before reaching at the bag on his back to grab more redstone, "Techno sleeps for days on end!"

"Being the best has its advantage!" You yell back, trying your best to shrug off the fact that your face was probably beet red-

Because what the fuck- it's embarrassing to be caught like that- much less with Techno-

You shook your head rapidly-

Thoughts? Out.

You need to focus on coffee.

Right.

Coffee.

And not cuddling with Techno.

Nskksn-

Your never gonna live that down-

You will now think about that every single time you see him- and you just know it's gonna eat you alive on the inside-

By the time your coffee was done and sitting neatly on the table with steam pooling up into the air, Techno still had yet to emerge- and Tommy was more then happy to jump on a business opportunity.

He tried being subtle first, trotting over to the table to simple take his cup- because of course you made a cup for Tommy.

He threw sugar in it, and drank it when it cooled, but the fact that he was still sitting at your table after that fact- made you very suspicious...

He wasn't one to sit and not do anything-

He was up to something.

The second his eyes glanced away from you during his rambling, you followed his line of sight to see Techno's cup.

So that's what he was after-

You may be very, very distracted by embarrassing thoughts at the moment, but you'd be dammed to let Tommy get away with scheming.

You looked back up at him, "Tommy- I am going to pause you in your scheming right now-" he glanced up as you started to speak, "That is Techno's-"

He only squinted at you with a strange silence.

He wasn't giving up his plots- so you made the appropriate movement to grab Techno's cup, but Tommy reacted quicker, yanking the cup off the table and beelining it across the ravine- spilling coffee absolutely everywhere with all the jostling-

"Tommy!" You yell, "So help me- that is the second time you've spilled coffee everywhere!"

He ran- laughing evilly- with another coffee cup, and his now stained shirt in his clutches, and you stared at him as he ran farther down the ravine.

"YOU ALWAYS GIVE STUFF TO TECHNO-" He yelled in the distance, scurrying far away-

"YOU SPILLED ALL OF IT- THERE'S NOTHING TO EVEN DRINK-" You yell after him, but he was too far down and completely ignoring you...

Ugh-

Gremlin children and the messes they make-

Your burning gaze landed on the wasted coffee, and you huffed out the longest sigh you could-

Cleanup time-

Wowee-

Standing from your chair, you left your coffee on the table, scared of it growing cold before you could finish it but also worried about dried coffee staining everything.

Before you could turn to grab a towel, a cough sounded near the edge of the nook, and you glanced up from the spilled coffee, seeing Techno wearing his full getup.

His mask was targeted at you, calm air about him making you question if you even embarrassed him to begin with-

How could he be composed after being so flustered? How did he go right back to emitting such a relaxed and nonchalant atmosphere.

"You know- when I see a brat running away with someone else's coffee- I really question my will to be awake."

You laugh slapping a hand over your face at his comment, half out of the recent embarrassment and half because yes, you can relate..

His mouth quirks up into a little smile-

You half want to belive it's because you laughed at his joke, and half think it's because he's still just as ruffled by the cuddling incident- but he was still so calm? And you weren't? And your mind is running a thousand different possibilities?

Argh- you have no idea what to think right now- too many 'half thinks.'

Too many over analizing thoughts popping to the surface and forcing you to listen to them.

He couldn't be angry with you if he was here right?

You're still in good faith? The small kindling of friendship you had with him wasn't doused with water?

In your uncertainty, you smiled, looking at where you supposed his eyes would be under the mask, and maybe you looked a little too long, but he didn't back down from the eyecontact, merely continuing with his original thought.

"Procrastinate and not do anything for a week...?" He asked himself, lifting a single hand, "Or be a productive conscious being-" his other hand rose, and with both hands in the air it clearly imitated a scale.

"I think we all know which one here is optimal-" he muttered, the procrastinating hand dropping as the winner.

And again, you laughed finally finding words to speak to him after struggling inside of your own head, "Mmm, yes- procrastination. Only losers are productive people."

He chuckled, laugh still raspy from sleep- voice rumbling, "Can you even imagine that? Productive people? What nerds."

You laughed, finally calming yourself and turning to the leftover water on the furnace.

Yes. You thought idly to yourself. You can imagine that.

Whether Techno wanted to believe it or not, he was a very productive person. He was calling himself a nerd-

You laughed to yourself, lighting the coal below the furnace to reheat the water.

If you strained your eyesight past all the brute strength and violent tendencies you could see him as a nerd. A little.

You took your eyes off of the water to look back at him- finding him already tilting his head in your direction, still standing on the edge of the nook like taking a seat would overstep a boundary. That or he doesn't want to stain his cape with coffee.

You'd give a pretty penny to know exactly what ran around inside that head of his.

"Why did Tommy push you?" Techno asks after a moment of tense staring.

"Push me?" Your eyebrow rose.

"You mentioned he pushed you, and you fell onto my bed-" Techno lazily swirled his hand around in the air, another flush reaching his ears as he acted as nonchalant as he could, "And then you got- stuck." He coughed into his fist, "Why?"

Well.

How to explain this without mentioning his gift.

Hmm-

Scratching your head you stare into the mask and say, "Welll- he came into the bedroom yelling after I tried looking for apples-" and shit, there goes a part of the present, "and I told him to be quiet because you were sleeping- and he tried dumping water on you and I tried to stop him."

Techno hummed. Not at all surprised and immediately moving onto the next topic of interest, "You know, if you were hungry we have an ungodly amount of potatoes-"

He left a moment of pause to see if you'd say anything before tagging on, "We have thirty chests full of them. No exaggeration. We have too many."

"MmmmMmm-" you hum- not at all wanting to tell him why you needed apples- because apples were literally your present-

But in your hesitancy, the atmosphere around him grew sterner- the same atmosphere that shrouded him when he first asked you if you were dangerous down in the mines

"Is there something going on that I should know about...?" His voice dropped lower then it already was- and your heart died with the intensity.

Holy shit- dangerous grounds- very dangerous grounds- you do not like when he starts suspecting things-

"I was making a present for you!" The words tumble out of your mouth before you could try to think of a plan to work around telling him- and you slap a hand over your face the moment you realize what you did.

Great.

Now the surprise is ruined.

"..." Techno's silence was telling, and you groaned before motioning him to follow as you trot back over to the bedroom.

You don't wait for him to follow nor do you check, but his footsteps behind you tell you he's on your heel.

"I might as well give it to you because you know now-" you grumble, wiping a hand on your face again as you approach the bag you had left laying on the floor.

You bend over, wrapping your hand around the top of the bag, wrangling it to pick it up before turning to Techno.

"I wanted to make golden apples with it before giving them to you, but...." you hold the bag up in an effort to hide your face, "Whatever, you can have it now-"

With your face behind the bag you can't see his reaction.

Only hear the silence, and the way one of his legs taps closer with a footstep.

Very gently, his hands reach out and grab the bag, brushing over your own to get a good handle on it.

Warm hands, that sink their warmth into your cold fingers with the slightest of touch.

"I..." he says, before going very quiet again.

With the bag out of your face you can finally look again, seeing his head titled down to look at the now open bag of gold.

He looked so confused as to why he was getting another gift from you, but at the same time nervous-

"Rgh-" he mumbles, "Ah- I'm-..." his head flicks between the bag and you, "This doesn't warm my heart at all-"

"Yeup." You say. He seemed to have this response to a lot of presents, and at this point you knew to just go along with what he was saying.

"This- this definitely won't be put to good use- it's going to sit in my chest-"

His ears were flushed again-

And a small thought rose in the back of your head.

A very small tugging one that slowly drifted to the surface with uncertainty.

Maybe you liked seeing him flustered.

That- or it was the thought that he was a nerd.

You don't know which one took more prevalence in your mind, but you just knew giving gifts and seeing him like the gifts made you happy.

"Think of it as a debt repayed- cause you've helped me out alot." You say, grinning when he nodded.

"Yeah- yes. Exactly- this is debt payment for breaking you out of jail."

He stepped away, pacing a circle for a few moments before walking outside the bedroom with the bag of gold.

You followed, out of curiosity, to watch him pause, take another look at the gold and say, "Yes- this is just payment." Before trotting up the steps.

Again, you followed him, chirping out, "Yes- exactly that." Tailing a few inches away as he entered the top room, La'dog perking up as he watched the two of you enter.

Without another word, Techno opened his ender chest and dumped all the gold into it.

He closed the chest, ender particles dancing across his hands as he did, and a breath escaped him. Not a sigh. Very much a breath of relief after not breathing.

You tilted your head, not seeing how his fingers kept thumbing over the chest, but certainly catching the movement of his arm to brush over his collar bone again.

"So yeah." You speak, interrupting the silence, "I just- I don't know." You shifted your feet and glanced away from his back, "You did a lot of things for me and others, and I felt like not a lot of people saw how much you were doing."

"Happy very early birthday." You finish off, looking back at him to see him slowly tilt his head towards you.

He straightened his back, looking as casual as he possibly could.

"Thanks. I guess." He muttered, looking fidgety even if he forced himself to remain calm.

His arm reached out- before pausing, hand outstretched. He instantly retracted it.

The way he was figeting made it look as if he was fighting with himself.

Fighting with what? You didn't know. Self conscious? The voices? Way of life?

All you knew was after that brief moment of back and forth, he took a step closer to you, and pulled you in-

In with a small, quick hug that only lasted a second, as not a moment later he pulled away as though burned.

"Alright- I'm off- goodbye- important things to do-" he jumbled out, quickly breaking through the dirt and leaving.

Just like that- gone.

Wow.

He-

He just gave you a hug and then ran away.

That-

Huh.

He's so shy about these things.

Or well- not used to it. Not used to just- having someone hug him? Or gift him something? Or anything within the normal realm of normal touch?

It's a part of him you doubted anyone saw often.

It's bad enough that he's strange about it- you love physical touch, and yet-

You could feel your face burning in just as much embarrassment.

He made it such an awkward occurrence.

"What the hell?! Did Techno just hug you??!!"

Oh right.

Tommy was in the ravine too.