Pain. Nothing but white hot pain. Technoblade's mind spun as he curled in a ball on his bed. He was so thankful for his siblings being too distracted outside. He let a small pained noise slip his mouth. He was normally so good at pretending to not be hurting, but as days turned to weeks the ache in his jaw turned to a constant pain.

Today had to be the worst day for it though, his jaw felt like it was burning. The poor boy could hardly think, the slight metallic taste of blood tingled on his tongue, there wasn't a lot, hardly any really, but it was all he could think about. Even the voices were quiet for once. He didn't want to admit it, but he missed them, their constant chatter kept him distracted, this quiet was new, Technoblade couldn't remember a time in his life that it had been quiet. The Nether was noisy, his brothers were noisy, the overworld was noisy, hell, even his own head was noisy. Technoblade wasn't used to all noise being drowned out by his brain only focusing on the pain in his jaw.

He didn't know when the tears had started, he didn't know how long he had been laying there for, sobbing quietly into his pillow. He didn't notice until there was a hand resting against his shoulder and soft cooing noises and comforting murmurs filled his ears.

He raised his head, shaking slightly as he did so. Almost instantly his face met the concerned brown eyes of his brother. Technoblade felt so confused, he couldn't understand, why was Wilbur here? He thought the boy would be outside with his brothers, bossing them about and pretending to form a country or something. The boy didn't know what they played, he was too preoccupied with the dull wooden sword, it made him feel like he was doing something important.

"Techno, what's wrong? Are you okay? Who am I kidding, you're obviously not. What's wrong? What's hurting?" Wilbur seemed to be stressed, he often rambled when stressed.

There was silence for a small while, Technoblade figuring out what to say and Wilbur waiting for his brother to talk to him.

"My jaw..." Technoblade started to talk slowly and carefully, trying his best to ignore how his own blood seemed to sting his tongue as it rubbed against two of his teeth. "Wilbur, my jaw hurts so bad." He looked up at his brother, eyes seeming to be pleading with him for just any form of comfort, some recognition that his twin was also hurting how he does. Selfish he knew, but in his defence he is a child with pain he can't explain.

Worry glittered over Wilbur's eyes, concern creasing his brow. The curly-haired boy thought for a moment. "Can you open your mouth?" He hoped that his brother would do as asked, after all the request was unconventional to say the least.

Technoblade seemed confused for a moment, but did as he was asked. Wilbur stared at his brother's face for a moment before he clapped, seeming excited. "Techno! Techno! Your teeth! Your tusks are coming in!"

This announcement made Technoblade close his mouth, seeming confused. "Wait... My tusks?" He seemed to join his brother in being excited. "Oh my gods! That's why I've been in pain!"

Wilbur nodded, grabbing his brother's hand and dragging him off the bed. "Technoblade we need to tell Dadza!" Wilbur had called his adoptive father the nickname once and from then it had kind of stuck for the oldest boys.

A small "oof" sound caused Wilbur to look down, laughing at the sight of his brother being in an awkward heap on the floor, all limbs at awkward angles. "Sorry Techno." Wilbur said with a laugh as his brother picked himself up off the floor and brushed himself off.

Technoblade rolled his eyes, elbowing his brother affectionately. "So, where's Dadza? Outside with the orphans we call brothers?" Wilbur stared at his brother with a slightly betrayed expression.

"Technoblade, you do realise that we're both orphans too?" The brunet said this with a laugh as he started to walk from the room.

The more obviously Piglin boy huffed to himself. "I'm not a bloody orphan."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night 'Blade. Whatever helps you sleep."

Technoblade pushed the front door open and stepped outside, enjoying how peaceful it was. At east until there was a yell from around the corner of the house. Tommy, never able to be quiet, was yelling something about "Tubbo and his bees." Technoblade assumed that Tubbo had managed to befriend some more bees and was accidentally tormenting the other blond child.

He felt Wilbur grab his wrist and begin to drag him to where Philza was watching the two children run about, Tubbo with a bee following close behind him, Tommy running away from them, pretending to be scared by the bee.

Phil looked up and waved, that familiar kind smile crossing his face. "Good afternoon boys. I see you managed to drag Techno out of bed." His voice was so kind, even if he was teasing his eldest son for having spent the day in bed.

"Yeah, he was so grumpy too." Wilbur said with a laugh, letting go of his brother's arm. This earned a huff from Techno, who shot a glare to his twin and crossed his arms.

"Oh! I have something to tell you!" Wilbur seemed to remember why he had even dragged his brother outside. He bounced on the balls of his feet as he stared at his father, watching as the man took on a confused expression.

"What did you do Wilbur?" Poor Philza sounded exhausted from the antics of the boy. "I swear if I have to go into the town to make amends for some prank I'm not going to be happy."

The brunet shook his head rapidly. "No! I didn't do anything! This is about Technoblade." Wilbur clapped his hands, reveling in the slightly confused look on his fathers face.

"What happened then? Why won't Techno tell me?" Phil shifted how he was sitting on the log he was using as a seat. But now the younger boys had noticed what was going on and were watching intently, Tubbo's bee having left at some point during the game too.

"Because he's Techno! He won't tell anyone anything because he's so tough and thinks he's-" Wilbur began to rant before getting cut off by his twin giving him a light kick.

Technoblade glared at his sibling, noise crunching up in anger, showing some of his teeth. "Shut up Wilbur." His tone dripped with a quiet danger. He turned to face his father and took a few breaths to calm himself. "I got dragged out here because according to Wilbur my tusks are coming in." This sentence was punctuated by an over dramatic eye roll.

Phil stood up, concern crossing his face, he had read that it could be painful, the teeth could grow quite a lot, and they would stretch out his gums, causing tearing and bleeding. "May I see Techno?" When he got a nod and saw the boy open his mouth Phil walked over to him and looked, sure enough there were two teeth in a slightly different position than they had been. Philza frowned, he had hoped that the boy wouldn't get the tusks, but he supposed it was inevitable, he looked so Piglin.

"You're gonna be okay Techno." He just wanted to comfort his son, but Techno had always been a hard one to comfort, he was fiercely independent and so kept things hidden and secret, he didn't often take people's words to heart, no matter what they were.

"I know I will." Techno shifted how he was standing, he seemed awkward.

"There is some blood there."

"I know."

"I can get you a potion to numb the pain if you want. It won't be strong, you're still too young for potions, really, but it might help."

"Please."

With that Philza stood up and walked into the house, calling for Wilbur and Techno to stop the younger boys from getting too far from the house.

"You're getting tusks?" Tubbo sounded so curious, staring up at Techno with those large blue eyes, their goat pupils did cause an uncanny look, but he was a cute child nevertheless.

Techno just nodded, looking down at the child, a small smile playing at his lips as he saw how Tommy stood just behind, the child was scowling slightly. It was a peculiar expression, but Techno found it funny.

"That's so cool!" The goat hybrid clapped his hands jumping slightly. "When I get my horns then we can match! And we can keep everyone safe! And and and!" Tubbo seemed to be trailing off as his mind wandered. But he just seemed excited and happy.

"Are you sure you're going to get horns Tubbo?" Wilbur asked, tilting his head. "You might end up without any. Like how I'm not getting tusks."

Tubbo shook his head. "I will get horns and I will look after everyone! I know I will!"

Tommy was the next to speak. "Tubbo, you don't need to protect us, because we have Dad and me! And I'm amazing!"

This caused the other three boys to laugh, Tommy scowling deeper and crossing his arms over his chest.

"You guys are rude. Thinking you're better than me because you're older."

Wilbur laughed again. "You're a child."

"So are you."

"True, but you're the youngest."

Tommy turned his back to his adoptive siblings. "Come on Tubbo, let's go find something better than these two bullies." He grabbed Tubbo's arm and stomped off, dragging the other boy behind him.

Wilbur began to laugh holding onto Techno's shoulder to stay standing. A few minutes later, the two boys stood in awkward silence as they watched their siblings run about with sticks, pretending to fight with swords.

It took a few minutes but Philza came out of the house, holding a bottle and a rag. He approached his sons. "Okay Techno, sit down, I'll put the potion on the cloth and then press it to your gums and it should stop you feeling pain for a while."

Techno nodded. "Alright."

He sat cross-legged on the grass, mouth open to allow Philza to swab the potion onto his sore gums. The winged man sat in front of his son and opened the potion bottle, pushing the rag to the mouth of the bottle he tilted it slightly, soaking the cloth with the potion.

When the rag had enough of the numbing potion on it Philza put the stopper back into the glass bottle and rested it beside him before he pushed the rag to the gums of his eldest. Techno's face contorted in disgust, numbing potions smelt minty and the poor hybrid boy had never really liked the smell of mint. The rag was kept on Technoblade's gums for a few minutes, during which time Wilbur had gone off to do something with the other two boys, probably taking command of their game as he usually did.

Once Phil removed the rag from Techno's mouth Techno poked at his lower lip, apparently the potion had got there and gods did it feel weird. "You okay Techno?" Philza seemed concerned, he wanted to make sure that there were no negative side effects of using the potion on the young boy. Sure, nearly 10 wasn't that young, but before your body was more matured potions could be dangerous, their power too much for the small body to properly use.

Technoblade just nodded in response to Phil's question and stood up, turning to head inside and probably start reading.

Philza smiled affectionately as the boy walked away before turning his attention to watch the other three boys. Not long after having to scold Wilbur for accidentally hurting Tubbo with the stick he was holding.

It was peaceful and nice. Phil loved days like these, when the family just was. Existing in their secluded little glade he had claimed as home so many years ago, before he found the two half Piglin boys, the human and the goat hybrid.