The Year We Had (MCYT AU)

8: Long Day

Phil had hoped to get home by the usual time, maybe a little early, so that he could call his boys and make sure that they were doing alright. He had promised Techno that he'd call on their first night, just in case something had gone horribly wrong, and knowing his son, Techno would assume the worst if he didn't call.

Unfortunately, Phil had been kept back late at work. His job was very demanding, and although he always wanted to put his sons first, sometimes he didn't have a choice.
When he finally got inside and sat down at the kitchen counter, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the first number on his list, putting the phone to his ear and waiting as it rang.

---

Techno was doing buzzfeed quizzes on his newly spy-free laptop when the call came in.

He let out a noise that Dream was most definitely not expecting, and tossed his computer aside in a scramble to answer the phone. He scooped up his phone and pressed it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Techno!" Phil's cheerful voice came through the speaker.

"Phillllll." Techno said, smiling easily. He sat back down on his bed and leant against the wall.

"Sorry my call was so late. I got caught up at work, you know how that can be."

"Big case?" Techno traced his fingers over the scars on the back of his forearms.

"Yeah. This dude's a bit of a psycho." Phil sighed, rubbing at his eyes. "But enough about that. How are you? How was day one?"

"Not too bad." Techno hummed. "They roomed me with this nerd who's obsessed with the colour green, but he doesn't seem like a serial killer so far."

Dream laughed at that, glancing up from the homework he was attempting at his desk.

"That's always good." Phil chuckled warmly.

"Wilbur had an episode, but I handled it." Techno supplied, and Dream pretended that he was anywhere else.

Phil's warm laugh faded quickly. "How bad was it?"

"Well, he ran out of the classroom to have a pretty extreme panic attack in the bathroom." Techno drawled. "And he's doing that thing where he pretends that nothing happened after."

Phil let out a sigh, rubbing his eyes once more. "That's not good."

"Yeah." Techno said, shrugging slightly.

"How are you holding up? Any problems?"

"Not really. I think he got the worst of it." It was true. While Techno suffered the physical injuries, he was rendered unconscious almost immediately. Wilbur was fully conscious for the whole thing. He had enough mental scarring for the both of them.

Techno talked with his father for a few minutes longer, avoiding certain terms as he was fully aware that Dream was right there and most definitely hearing everything. They ended off on a more upbeat tone, and Phil hung up to call his other children.

Techno turned to his roommate and cleared his throat. "Sorry about that."

"Oh, you're fine." Dream waved it off, glancing up from his notebooks. "Your dad sounds nice."

"Yeah, he's pretty good."

There was a beat of awkward silence as Techno tried to think of the words. Dream had obviously covered for both him and his brother when things had gone wrong, and he at the very least deserved a thanks for his efforts. "Thanks for, uh, what you did today in science. With Wilbur."

"Oh." Dream wasn't expecting that. "Yeah, it was no problem. Any time."

Techno managed a smile. He didn't really want to talk about it, but Dream didn't seem to care.