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“Techno!” Wilbur’s voice called through the music that Techno was peacefully listening to, the door swinging open as the brunet grinned.
Knowing that his twin wouldn’t take no for an answer, Techno sighed and slid one side of his headphones off of his ear. “What?”
“It’s December first.”
“Yes, and?” Techno knew exactly what Wilbur was alluding to, but hell if he wasn’t going to try to ignore it. He was very attached to the skeleton hanging in his window.
With a wicked grin, Wilbur clearly meant to dash Techno’s dreams entirely. “We’re putting Christmas decorations up. Which means that your remnants of Halloween are coming down.”
Techno gave a groan and frowned at his twin. “Why do you have to take my Halloween decorations down?”
“Because, you can’t just leave a skeleton hanging in the window, people can see it from the street!”
“And? I don’t see the issue here.”
Wilbur narrowed his eyes. “ October is the spooky month, you heathen. I put up with you dragging it out into November, but December is time for Christmas.”
“Sounds overrated to me.”
“I’m going to throw your books into the fire.”
“Alright, book burner. I see that you clearly don’t value freedom of expression – and you call me a heathen.”
Giving a loud and obviously over-dramatic groan, Wilbur walked over and flopped over Techno’s bed, half landing over his feet. “You are the worst.”
“Says the one trying to take away my window skeleton.”
“At least put a Santa hat on it or something!”
Techno hummed. They both knew how this argument eventually went – Wilbur would either take his Halloween stuff down himself, or Techno would break under the pressure of his twin’s pleading.
“Fine, alright. I can do a Santa hat, but I get to put a spider on the tree.”
“You know that a spider will scare the hell out of Tommy.”
Techno stared at his twin, carefully keeping his expression neutral. “Yes, and?”
Wilbur paused, staring back at him. It was a test of wills, trying to see if one of them would laugh – this time it seemed like neither would, for now.
Thus, when Wilbur nodded, Techno shifted his foot to dig into ticklish ribs, and the brunet squealed with surprise as he scrambled away from the offending extremity.
“You dick-!”
“That’s what you get for trying to take my Halloweed decorations,” Techno said, before Wilbur lunged at him.
~~~
“It’s fucking cold, man,” Tommy groaned, as Techno hung up some light plastic snowflakes around their porch area.
Techno looked down at his brother. “Then go get some gloves on? You’ll save your fingers a bit, at least.”
Not that the teen seemed to pay him any mind, just groaning and calling up to Phil on the ladder that he was currently holding. “Phiiiillll, how long will this take?”
“It won’t be too long mate- we need to move the ladder again, give me a second.”
It was then that Wilbur apparently finished the snowflakes that he had also been putting up, and he hummed. “Here Toms, I’ll switch with you for a minute while you get some gloves, and I can make us all some hot chocolate or something?”
Tommy looked at his brother with some doubt, or maybe mischievousness in his eyes that maybe Techno should be more concerned about, but the blonde shrugged. “Alright, get down here then.”
Wilbur grabbed onto the ladder that Phil was standing on, and from there Tommy ran inside, barely pausing enough to knock the snow from his boots before tracking it inside. Techno would probably have to mop up the wetness in the entryway after they were done out here, anyway.
He sighed at the thought and finished up with his own snowflakes, stepping back to get a good look at them. No too-strict pattern, no same-iness that would make it look off, he was content with it.
When Tommy came back outside, he watched the way that Wilbur was gently smacking his hands on the ladder that Phil stood on, making their dad shout down at him in amused, over-the-top fear.
And then Techno made eye contact with the boy, who gave him a smirk.
Yeah, he should really be concerned about that.
But Tommy just raised a now-gloved hand to his mouth, shushing Techno before he could say anything. Now they were at an impasse – either the eldest brother let Tommy get away with whatever chaos he was about to start, or he called him out and ruined the fun.
And, well, he didn’t have the heart to do that.
So Techno nodded, and Tommy grinned before running out into the previously untouched snow of the yard and started working.
“Wilbur- you little shit, let me get down!” Phil cackled, trying to step down the ladder as Wilbur shook the thing, making the man cling to the cold metal.
Wilbur just grinned up at the man. “But you missed a spot Phil, you have to fix it!”
“I’m not going to fix every little nitpicky patch of lights! If it bothers you that much then you have to fix it yourself!”
“But you’re already up there, just tuck it around a little!”
Techno watched the two of them with a smile. He was still just glad that he could still spend holidays like this, unlike his previous encounters when he was still in the foster system. Even if he was in college now, he could always come home and feel comfortable around the people he called his family.
All off this was… peaceful, in a chaotic way.
“I- Tommy!”
At the distraught tone of Phil’s voice, Techno looked over to his youngest brother and blinked at the sight of the boy standing in the middle of the yard, looking far too smug.
“Yes, Phil?” The boy called back innocently, knowing full well what he had done.
What he’d been doing, apparently, is drawing a giant dick in the snow with his footprints.
Wilbur cackled as soon as he recognized the shape, while Phil pressed a hand to his face with a groan, and Techno rolled his eyes.
Seeing as Wilbur was probably going to have to clear the evidence of the gremlin’s artistic ability from the snow, Techno figured that he would go inside and start making some hot chocolate for them all.
He laughed under his breath as he knocked the snow off his boots. The other three were all going to end up with frozen fingers, if the screams outside were any hint.