wipe the blood off your face (it may stain)

Let Me Stand To Show You Are Blind

Techno was... kind of content.

He'd admit, the bar was still pretty low, and it had been for a while, but he wasn't mad, or stressed, or upset, or anything else. So, as he drank is hot cup of tea while reading his book, cozying up in the library, he could admit that he was content.

Huh.

It wasn't like he had been miserable ever since Tommy revealed his identity, per se. There were some moments where he felt neutral or even somewhat happy, though there was always something weighing down on him.

But at the moment, not really. Sure, him along with his family still must deal with telling Tommy about Phil's true abilities, and the kid was gradually getting pushier about it, but they could still wait it out. Plus, it was obvious that no matter how badly Tommy wanted to poke and prod at the situation more, he wouldn't really confront them, in fear of potentially undoing any progress he had made with the SBI and—

Well, Tommy was actually succeeding at that.

It surprised Techno, he wouldn't lie, he thought that it would take much longer for both Wilbur and Phil to be okay with Tommy again. Techno always knew that Wilbur would be hard to deal with because he was Wilbur. But Phil, he did not see coming. In fact, he thought Phil would've taken Tommy revealing who he truly was much more gracefully than anyone, but he acted rather like a rabid dog.

And while Phil was known to get overprotective and slightly insane when it came to protecting his family, Techno thought that at this point Tommy was family too, and for that, Phil wouldn't react the way he did.

He was obviously wrong.

But Phil was justified, especially when it was the heat of the moment. Even if he was obviously too tough on Tommy, judging by the outburst the kid had. Things had finally been cooling off though, as the tension that hung in the air like a smoke suffocating them had slowly dissipated.

Things certainly weren't back to the way they were, assuming that it could be in the first place, but it was okay. And okay seemed to be the best they could do at the moment. So, Techno was content.

He raised his head from his book when he heard someone entering the library, seeing Ranboo, who froze once they realized they were not alone in the room. They widened their eyes. "Oh, hi Technoblade. I can go if you'd like."

Techno huffed. "I've told you already, call me Techno. And you can stay if you'd like," he assured.

Techno had been trying to be nicer towards Ranboo and Tubbo. He even went out of his room more just in case he saw them and could interact with them. It wasn't that he particularly wanted to, but Tommy had told him that they were intimidated by him, and although he was used to that, he would rather not have people he would be living with in the foreseeable future feel that way about him, not only for their sake, but his as well. He would hate having to walk on eggshells around them for the rest of his life.

He had connected with Ranboo specifically, at least. Tubbo was fine, but there was something about Ranboo he just clicked with.

Unfortunately, the kid was an anxious mess, which made his whole 'trying to bond with these traumatized teenagers' thing a little hard. It didn't help that he was, as Tommy and Wilbur had both called him, 'emotionally constipated.'

Ranboo untensed at Techno's reassurance. "...Alright."

He hesitated before walking to one of the bookshelves. Techno continued to read his book to not make the kid nervous with his eyes on them, but made sure Ranboo stayed in his line of sight.

Surprisingly, Ranboo sat down in one of the seats in the library, unlike leaving like Techno assumed so.

At that meant it would probably do some good if Techno attempted to talk with Ranboo while they were around.