Techno's day was... interesting, to say the least. After Dream helped him create that 'Instagram' (he still has trouble pronouncing the name) profile, posted every single one (the ones he considered 'sexy') of the photoshoot pictures on it on Techno's behalf (because the prince has no idea how to operate this human piece of technology), he was... well... cornered by perhaps most of his year at the courtyard. Literally, right as he stepped foot on school grounds it was like he'd pressed a button and girls and boys just sprouted from the ground to gush over his prettiness and say embarrassing things like: "Oh my God, you were so ultimately hot in that one picture!".

Even some of the jocks and football players were in the mix and- let's just say that they had some interesting opinions that Techno had never ever heard before. It was mostly tips about how to swoon the ladies, some measly, half-assed attempts to get him in their group of 'badasses' (if you could even call 'em that) with high praises and obvious desperation. Don't get him wrong, Techno really appreciates the compliments but the attention on the other hand... yeah, it was too much. Too many eyes, too many nice words and too many people trying to get in his pants.

And then Wilbur had come and whisked him away, took him inside and to homeroom where Techno proceeded to lecture Dream about what he had done to him and his reputation of "Stoic, unmoveable stone" as Wil had described him. It got so intense that Tommy and Tubbo were summoned to the chaos, appeared straight out of thin air -it was a pretty humorous entrance honestly- and then the teacher had to separate them when Techno had grabbed Dream by the collar of his shirt to shake like maracas. Only an hour later, when first period finished, did Techno realize that he had made a critical mistake.

Even more people gushed over him outside of class and that 'show of strength' of his and he just wanted to bang his head on the wall or dig a hole, jump in it and never see the light of day again. Humans have so many quirks and normally, he finds them weird but not that weird. Where he had expected to make enemies, he made fangirls and fanboys. Wilbur, who was just standing there, right beside him, was having the time of his life, just laughing at his misery. And if Techno was not scared of being the talk of the school, he would've dropkicked him on the spot. What? Tommy has shown him a couple of videos, it looks easy! (And fun)

When they returned to the hotel, all hell broke loose. They were chasing each other around with knives and those miniature tridents they found in the kitchen drawers for at least an hour, trying to remain as quiet as possible before Niki noticed Wilbur hiding under the tablecloth and the game was up. Of course, Miss Puffy ratted Techno out as well and they were both grounded once again and condemned to many hours of room service. The only happy ones about that arrangement were the guests because two hot, young teenagers were doing maid service. Techno thinks it was more or less fanservice.

Anyways.

It's now nighttime and the two of them finally have a chance to relax, splay themselves on their beds and just sleep for a century. They don't share the same room, but they are neighbors, and it's easy to hear them arguing from their beds, just shouting well into the night. The walls are that thin. Yes, they can hear many of their guests' nightly activities. Niki said it was to make sure they wouldn't wake up to a dead corpse in the morning because someone had smuggled a gun in their room and accidentally slept on it. Neither hotel owner came by to shut them up and tell them to sleep, so the two stayed awake well-passed midnight, their conversation going from insults, to teases, to eventually talking about anything that came to mind.

Techno thinks it's pleasant to have someone like Wilbur to hang out with, someone who feels like a real brother (even though he doesn't have any seablings to know what a real brother feels like). Wilbur thinks that as well, and he went so far as to ask Techno to teach him how to fence and how to put bullies into painful headlocks. That was a fun few school periods. Yeah, Wilbur doesn't have the best reputation anymore but he can now ensure Tubbo and Tommy's safety on school grounds. It was a necessary sacrifice.

And you'd think Techno would be crowned the school delinquent after that morning episode.

A silence falls between them for a few minutes, nice and comforting because they can sense each other through the walls, and they know that the only thing keeping them separate are two walls and two doors. Doors that are not locked; that are open, and they can rush to the other if something happens. They can easily get to one another and that fact alone provides a feel of security.

"Come over, I want to show you something!", Wilbur tells him, and within a second, Techno is up from his bed, his blanket wrapped around his shoulders and he is making his way to the siren's room. The air in the hallway between the rooms is cold, and Techno has experienced colder -he is used to colder- but the comfort of the blanket is intoxicating in the best way possible- it would be a sin to abandon that blanket!

When he makes it to Wilbur's room, stepping on his toes even though they were shouting not too long ago, he finds the brunet sitting on his bed. Wilbur has a guitar in hand; his heirloom, the one crested with coral and gems. Techno didn't see it for long the time when Wilbur had transformed it to try and fight that water demon and now, he can't see it because the room is dark with no light lit. The only way he can make out the shape of it is the small line of moonlight that separates Wil's body from the instrument; said light seeping through a crack in the window shutters.

"What's up?", he asks, and now they're whispering. What unorthodox logic; to shout obnoxiously when they're far apart in ungodly hours of the night with guests in suites atop their heads, but to whisper when they're close, almost humping heads.

There's something poetic about that logic. Techno is too tired to philosophize on it though.

"I learnt to play a few cords yesterday", Wilbur chirps with a shine of pride. "I put together a small piece, would you like to hear it?"

Without missing a beat, Techno nods and Wil begins to play. It's nothing spectacular, and the guitar sounds weird, out of tune or something, but it makes Techno's chest swell with pride nonetheless. He can see how Wilbur is leaning a tad too forward, back hunched in perhaps an embarrassed stature, tense as all hell; he can't blame the guy, it's his first performance in front of a live- well, a person. And Techno is proud; even if there are few notes that are being played on repeat, because Wilbur is a noob still, he is proud.

He likes to call this tall, embarrassed, ambiverted mess of a siren his brother. Adopted brother? Soul mate? No, that's too far. Just brother; it's close enough.

The song doesn't last long either, it's about a minute of music with no lyrics but he knows that the brunet put his heart into it to make it as perfect as possible. There's no way he can explain it; it's just a feeling the melody brought him; empathy, nostalgia, pathos, whatever humans call it. At the end, Wil looks up at him but Techno can't see the way his eyes shimmer in anticipation in the dark. He can imagine it though, because the prince is an open book to him even in the darkness of the room.

"So?", Wilbur asks after Techno says nothing for a second.

"It sounds really good", he tells him, and it's in earnest and genuine. Perhaps he is biased but he likes it.

"Really?", but of course Wilbur has to regard everything with suspicion. Sigh. They can work on that later, when it'll be morning and not the middle of the night. "You really think it sounds good?"

"Yeah, I like it", the pinket enforces with a firm nod which he hopes Wil can see in the frail light of the moon. Or sense it like he did his eagerness. "A tad repetitive, but I like it"

That seems to be good enough of a critic for Wilbur, who hums in satisfaction and proceeds to pluck a few more notes, this time playing whatever sounds good to his ears. That is, before he stops for a second, probably grins like a maniac, and shoves the guitar in Techno's hands and urges him to try. Of course, Techno's first instinct is to refuse, fearing that he'll embarrass himself, but then Wil is pulling the biggest puppy eyes Techno has ever seen. How can he even see them? And on top of all these questions, who is Techno to refuse puppy eyes? The only land animals that he can tolerate are dogs. The very small, white, floofy ones that somehow never turn brown from dirt.

Seriously, he needs to learn this ancient disarming technique.

He could use it against the water demons. And the humans. He could use it on Dream the next time the guy tries to take him and Wil to a crowded space. Or! Or, he could use it on Niki so that he may never ever have to do room service ever again.

Yes, that's perfect.

"Well, prepare your ears", he says and he gives an experimental strum. It kinda sounds okay -the guitar really isn't tuned though and he silently wonders if that's how a guitar really sounds like. It could just be the material, y'know?- but the motion is still foreign. "You just do this?", he strums again with a tad more strength to the movement.

"Yes, yes, yes!", Wilbur excitedly says, and he moves to adjust Techno's fingers on the long neck of the instrument, pressing his forefinger on the thickest string. "And when you press on the frets -the little shiny thingies here- they make different noises!"

So he plucks a string with a finger pressing down on the neck, so hard that you'd think he was trying to stop a wound from bleeding, and to his surprise, it really does make a different noise. A really high pitched, ugly, godforsaken noise. Techno thinks that his ears might actually be bleeding, though he might just be overreacting. He was blasted to space by a blue whale once and he was fine afterwards; why would a mere instrument make his ears bleed? Music is weird.

"I think it's better if it stays in your hands, Wil, and as far away from mine"

Wilbur makes his movements seem heavy with sadness and rejection as he takes back the musical instrument but they both know that it is for the better good of their health and ear drums. Techno appreciates the little act of drama anyway.

"Do you think we woke up anyone?", Techno asks after. Wilbur shrugs.

"We've been shouting for an hour and Niki hasn't come down to tell us to shut up yet soooo" -he shrugs again- "probably not?"

Techno hums, putting a finger to his chin. An idea comes to his brain, and he can just about see Wilbur's toothy grin as they both have lit lamps hovering over their heads.

"You wanna raid the fridge?"

And the idea isn't to just raid the fridge of all the chocolates and the cupboards of all the sugar and Niki's homemade cookies. No, no, it is to raid the whole kitchen and to barely leave anything for the guests. Do they care whether all their guests will eat is store-bought dips and biscuits? Hmmm, not really. It's fine, they'll get to eat lunch (only because neither of them know how to cook) and dinner (for the exact same reason), so it should be fine.

If Niki is awake and waiting with a spatula in the kitchen and sees two tall teenagers sharing a blanket over their backs, it probably won't be. But the chances of that happening are low.

"I'm calling dibs on the top shelf", Techno says as they tip-toe down the hall to the main room. Wilbur makes this characteristic hissing sound of an angered turtle.

"But that's where all the chocolate is!", the brunet whisper-yells, until he realizes that Techno knows that, "If you're taking the sweets, you have to share!"

Techno hums a bit, pulling the blanket tighter around his shoulders. Wilbur squeals and pulls it back around his, the cold pretty unwelcome to his human skin. The other chuckles mirthfully like the misbehaving child that he is but Wil can't do anything about it, even though he is the taller of the two; it's either he pulls them both to the ground and they never get to raid the kitchen or he leaves them be and they end up raiding the kitchen and munching on cookies all night long.

He thinks the latter is the better option. Which it is and no one can argue with that.

"No, I don't think I will", the pinket decides.

"You bastard!"

"Hush"

"Hmpf, doesn't matter, I'll steal them"

Techno narrows his eyes at him.

"That's illegal, Wil"

"Niki will never believe you"

Which is true. Darn parents, always playing favorites. Not that Niki is their parent, they have parents (at least one of them does) but the woman acts so much like their mum that she, as stated before, has the ability to ground them. Isn't that one of the many qualities of a parent?

And Techno as to forfeit his dibs on the top shelf. It's fine, he's sure he could take Wil on a fight over biscuits any day.

"Touché"

And Wilbur grins, victorious, throwing his arms up as far as their shared blanket will allow.

The kitchen is pretty much untouched when they arrive; spotless and so clean that they can see their reflections on the black granite counter. The knives hanging on the wall and sticking out of the knife block, too, look clean, like they've just been taken out of their packaging. This only proves that the kitchen staff is to be trusted; aside from just making great food in general.

"I'll get the cabinets", Techno says, only because he is so nice and considerate to forfeit the fridge to Wilbur. He is totally not doing this because he doesn't like to see pouts on Wil's face, no, no.

"Then I'll get the fridge", the siren proclaims with a victorious grin and he completely misses the other's shy smile.

When this midnight snack mission became a full on operation, neither of them know but it happened and they've accepted it. Wilbur is scouring the fridge shelves for everything that is sweet and edible, and Techno is doing the same at the cabinets but with the addition of a trash bag, in which he stores all of his finds. They work in complete silence, as a whole police unit searching for bombs in a bank, and they move about whilst trying to keep a blanket still shared between them (they do the occasional tag-of-war). It is a difficult job to say the least.

This goes on for some time and Techno's bag is half full of delicious delights and chocolate and cherry syrups that he doesn't know what to do with but he's taken anyway, and the table is cluttered with Nutella jars and chocolates and God knows what else that Wilbur has found worthy in the fridge. And that's about the time they think they should pack their treasure and make for Techno's room, because his closet has more space to hide the bag than Wil's (as much as he talks about how he's scared of people, he sure spends a lot of time browsing shop windows).

That's when they hear a rat. At least, they think it's a rat. There's something rustling in the pantry or outside but either way, it is scary. Niki has told them that rats are pests, quite like the sardines in the palace kitchens or the eels in the gardens. They've never seen one in person, not even Wilbur who has lived in so many places that it should've been impossible for him to not have seen a rat, and miss Puffy has only shown them a very scary depiction of one in her crystal ball.

To say that they didn't get scared would be an understatement. It was a monster with four stubby legs, glowing red eyes and teeth as sharp as an angler fish's. Technoblade still has nightmares of it from time to time.

Techno gestures for Wilbur to be silent, which the brunet does with little protest, and tiptoes to the pantry door. Of course, his hand goes to wrap around his ruby, which is nowhere to be found because he doesn't go to bed with it on, so he grabs a knife from the knife block instead. It's sharp enough, he's got the skills to pay the bills; they'll be fine. Surely, a water demon must be scarier than a rat; Techno isn't shaking at all, no, no.

He opens the pantry door and, surprisingly, there is nothing suspicious in there; no fallen packages or nibbled cardboard that would suggest a rat infestation- everything is in place. Which means- it means that the danger is outside. Phew.

"Okay", he sighs out, and Wilbur behind him visibly untenses.

"No rats?"

"No ra-"

Techno is rudely interrupted by another noise outside. This time it isn't the innocent rustling of dangerous rats but rather the tincan alarm of the back door. The tincan alarm isn't something very special, it's just cans on a string that clink and clank when something disturbs said string. It's a safety measure Niki and Miss Puffy had installed to keep trespassers and break-ins to a minimum.

The two share a look, suddenly connecting the dots that whatever is outside is not a rat but a person. A bad person. As in, a potential criminal or drunkard or some stupid kid playing a prank. This, Techno deems, is much less scarier than encountering a rat.

"Techno, who is that?", Wilbur asks in a whisper, as if Techno can see through walls. "Could it be one of the water demons?"

The pinket shakes his head. "I don't know" -he grips the knife tighter at Wil's worry- "But if it's a water demon, I'm kicking their ass"

And with that, Techno does perhaps the most stupid thing he's done in his life; he opens the door- just a crack! Just enough to poke the knife through and stab whoever is on the other side.

"Come back here, you two!" , is what they hear almost immediately. It's a whisper, a hiss, a warning to whoever the person is chasing outside of the hotel. But, it sounded more distant than where the tincans are, which means-

Shit, it's not just one person.

Okay, maybe this is scarier than a full-blown rat infestation. Just a tad. Y'know; just a bit.

"But the backdoor is always unlocked! Come on!", this one is much closer than the other one. Closer to the tincans- fuck. And it's about to be joined by the other one if it actually listens.

Techno wants to curse more than that, but that might lead to him actually cursing aloud, and then Wilbur will start swearing as well and they might end up discovered, stabbed or worse. So. No swearing.

"Wilbur, I think we might need to wake Niki up for this", Techno quietly says. The brunet looks over his shoulder, back to the open kitchen door to the connected hallway.

"Tubbo, come back here, dingus!", -okay, what?

The both of them immediately sigh in relief. It's not just some random mafia group trying to break into the hotel then. That's good; incredibly good actually! Don't get the two of them wrong, they could've handled some measly humans with guns and knives- but it's a huge relief that they don't have to. It's just Tubbo, Tommy and... Phil?

"Why are they trying to sneak into the hotel?", Wil voices both of their thoughts.

That's when Techno decides that enough is enough, and without warning, opens the door fully to reveal a spooked Tubbo, a very much more spooked Tommy and a distraught Phil running towards them. They all look at each other and Wil and Techno watch as the scared frowns on the others' faces turn into relieved smiles.

"What are you two doing there?"

The two princes jump in surprise at the sound of Niki's irritated voice behind them.

Δ

"I see... That is quite the story. Are you sure the planks weren't just rotten and worn?", Niki asks with concern and a tiny bit of doubt. Phil grips the mug of steaming lavender tea in front of him, looking down at the tinted liquid with a solemn and troubled expression.

He shakes his head.

"No, I checked them frequently and they had not gotten worn, no cracks, not much creaking. They held up good", he says and takes a sip of tea, the calm scent of lavender filling his senses and relaxing his shoulders. "The kids saw a mermaid in the water. I suspect whoever that was caused the beams to break"

Niki hums, taking it all in. After, she takes a look over her shoulder at the four teenagers in the lobby. They are talking quietly, hushed whispers in candlelight. Perhaps Tommy and Tubbo are sharing the same story, only exaggerating it as young minds usually do. By the way Tommy is cuddled into Wil's side, under two fluffy blankets, leaving Tubbo to explain with animated limbs, that's probably what's happening.

Puffy comes over with her crystal ball in hand. There is mysterious smoke in the ball, the heavy sort that swirls and moves like a pool of water. She rubs it with a warm palm, then sets it on its intricate, metal stand on the center of the table. Phil raises his gaze to it, eyes wide in curiosity.

"Let's see what really happened", she says, voice even and formal, way too calm for what Phil has just told them.

With another wave of her hand the smoke swirled, turning from its light gray hue to a tinged lilac. Niki looks on with an interested gaze whilst Phil's is more on the surprised and bewildered side. That's an average reaction, seeing as he's never seen anything like this before.

The smoke subsides, thinning and sticking to the sides. A dark image emerges, slowly lighting up enough to show the beach house and the three victims on the porch. It's fuzzy, and the way it shows Tommy and Tubbo's movement is somewhat glitchy bit Phil looks on with intrigue nonetheless.

"How is it doing this?", he asks. Niki and Puffy chuckle at his child-like astonishment.

Despite its magical show, it ends just where Phil ended his story: when the wood broke beneath their feet. Phil winced but doesn't look away; instead, he looks on and analyzes the slow replay of the beams breaking. It looks like someone pulled on the beams, as they fly outward in a forceful and unnatural manner.

Niki gasps for an unknown reason and Puffy hums in response.

"I see"

"Do you think it's?.."

"It could be"

Phil reacts to their murmurs with hope and confusion.

"Do you know who did this?", he asks, and he is only met with two pairs of wide, nostalgic eyes.

"Perhaps"

"It's just a suspicion"

"What else did the boys see?"

Phil taskes another sip of his tea to calm his nerves. The smoke inside the crystal fades, leaving behind its natural clear yet foggy white. He can recall Tommy describing the tail he saw in the water; the colours of the scales.

"They said they saw the merfolk in the water and that their tail was purple and teal", he says, eyes firm on the two's faces, looking for any sign of recognition. The two of them know, he knows, and they don't make an effort to hide it- which is very good.

Niki sits straighter in her chair, hands cursing into loose fists on the table, whilst Puffy falls in the nearest seat, her white and brown hair falling like puffs of clouds on her shoulders.

"Are you two alright?"

Niki looks at the crystal ball, at the stillness of the smoke and only utters one word; one name: Karl.

=============