s on suggested Modern!au sbi getting into a car crash and I said: YES PLEASE
I love these kinds of scenarios where you can hurt the whole gang at once
"How come Techno gets to sit in front even though I'm older?" Wilbur complained. Phil glanced at him in the rearview mirror barely containing a grin while Techno snorted.
"Winner's privilege," he said. "Get better at bowling and maybe you can sit here next time."
Wilbur frowned, trying to fit his ridiculously long legs in the back seat without much luck. It didn't help that Tommy was unable to stay still next to him, occasionally prodding at Tubbo who was halfway to falling asleep against the other window. Despite it still being afternoon, they had been out all day doing fun family activities and it had tuckered him out. Unlike Tommy who had shoved approximately two metric tons of candy into his body and was taking advantage of that sugar high to become even more of a menace than usual. Wilbur swatted his hand away when the kid moved on to poking him next.
"Don't be such a pussy, Wils!" Tommy laughed at his brother's clear annoyance.
"Language," Wilbur told him sharply before Phil could. "This is so unfair," he added ruefully, kicking lightly at the back of the passenger seat.
Techno ignored him and stared out the window while Phil bent forward to turn down the music so it wouldn't wake Tubbo up. A few cars sped by in the opposite direction, but overall traffic was fairly calm for a Saturday. They were already outside of the busy city center, moving down suburb streets towards their house. "How about if you get to pick what we order for dinner tonight?" Phil asked Wilbur placatingly.
Predictably enough those words got the teen to perk up in no time, forgetting all about his earlier grievance. "Can I?"
"Can we do pizza?" Tommy asked immediately, practically bouncing in his seat. The motion got his jacket tangled in the seatbelt and he undid the buckle to straighten it out.
Phil opened his mouth to answer but never got to it. The next moment he was shoving his foot down on the brake full force, pulling on the wheel and causing the car to skid sideways. Technoblade turned his head just in time to see the dog Phil had been trying not to hit scurry to the other side of the road, narrowly avoiding being run over. Their car didn't stop moving though, momentum propelling it forward. A loud curse escaped Phil as he tried to get the vehicle back under control.
Tommy yelped as he was flung into Wilbur's side on the back seat. The smell of rubber scorching as it spun uselessly against the asphalt trying to gain traction filled Techno's senses and the car shook as they bumped the sidewalk once before veering back onto the road. And right into the path of oncoming traffic.
They were going to hit another car. They were going to crash.
The realization slipped into Techno's mind suddenly. He only had a split second to react – let alone make a conscious decision about what he would do – and then he was reaching for the steering wheel. He jerked it to the opposite side urgently and the car followed, turning sharply to the right. This way, the impact of the collision would be on the front passenger side. On Techno's side.
The world came to a shocking standstill before everything started happening at once.
Metal screeched against metal, an awful sound accompanied by the breaking of glass shattering all over him, and Techno's body was tossed forward against the seatbelt. It cut into his shoulder but then he was hurled back again, pain the only thing he could be aware of. His vision turned upside down as the car flipped onto its roof from the unbridled force of the collision, rolling back onto its wheels again a moment later.
More pain shot through him and he closed his eyes.
When Technoblade could blink again his ears were ringing. He groaned as he reached out for the side of the car, feeling it dented horribly inward and pressed against his leg. Hot blood was running down the limb from some unseen wound. His chest hurt, breathing ragged as he tried to get his bearings. His head too, the whiplash sending sharp aches down the back of his neck.
He stayed still for a moment, simply trying to remember how to exist again. Then a piercing scream broke through the ringing and his eyes snapped open.
Tommy.
Techno twisted, ignoring how much it hurt. After fumbling for a bit he managed to undo his seatbelt, wrenching his leg from the bent metal with a horrible wet sound from the gash in his thigh. He tried to look around, tried to find the others. Adrenaline was steadily overtaking all pain, making it easier to dismiss in favor of the panic spurring him on. He had to look for his family.
Phil was in the seat beside him, slumped over onto the steering wheel with blood running down his face. A horrible cut on the side of his forehead seemed to be the cause, probably the result of him hitting his head on the wheel. He was unconscious, a small flicker of eyes moving underneath closed lids the only sign he was still alive. Tubbo and Wilbur were both stuck in the backseat, groaning in pain and barely moving, but that could be a good sign. Small noises had to be good.
It had to be better than Tommy screaming his lungs out.
The windshield was shattered – either by the impact of the other car or the child who had been thrown through it. Tommy - who hadn't been wearing his fucking seatbelt. Techno pushed up onto his hands and knees and pulled himself from the wreckage through that same windshield, not caring if he cut his palms open on the shards of glass around him. Stumbling onto his legs had another stab of pain run through him but Techno disregarded it. He'd look after himself once his family was safe.
"Tommy!" His call turned into a cough, bruised ribs grating against his insides. Technoblade could see the shape of his little brother, curled up on his side in the middle of the road a few meters in front of the car. Seeing it sent a fresh spark of terror into his veins.
He was next to Tommy in seconds, kneeling down and holding his hand carefully, repeating his name over and over. On the inside, Techno was scrambling for any smidge of first aid knowledge he had gathered over the years. He shouldn't move Tommy, should he? No, definitely not. If his spine was damaged-
"Tech," Tommy sobbed out. There were tears streaming down his face, pale and streaked with more blood. His shoulder was bend at an odd angle, bone poking through the flesh and all fucked up. Techno inhaled sharply. "It hurts."
"I know, Tommy." He let go of his brother's hand to pull his hoodie off, hastily folding it. Moving Tommy as little as physically possible he slid it under the other's head. "Don't move, alright? It's going to be okay. I need to check on the others." Techno tried to stand back up but Tommy's hand curled into his shirt, eyes wide with fright.
"Don't leave me! Please, Don't-"
Technoblade squeezed his hand lightly, hoping it would be enough to reassure him. "I'll be right back, I'm helping the others. They're still in the car." Some comprehension slipped back into Tommy's eyes clouded with pain at the mention of their family and he nodded tightly, biting at his lip. Techno squeezed his hand a second time before letting go.
He stumbled back to the car, holding onto the roof as to not collapse on the spot. His vision was annoyingly fuzzy around the edges, dizzy and nauseating, but he shook it off. Phil still hadn't moved and as worrying as that was, Techno wanted to check on Tubbo first. The poor kid had been asleep and wouldn't even properly know what had happened. Techno pulled open the car door to be met with wide, frightened eyes. Tubbo didn't look too much worse for wear, aside from a few bruises already turning dark shades of purple and shards of glass suck in his curly brown hair. But he was clearly in shock, staring at Techno as if he had seen a ghost.
"Tubbo," Techno addressed him, putting one hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "Tubbo, are you okay? Are you hurt?" The last question had a little more urgency to it.
For a moment Tubbo merely stared at him, but then he got the tiniest shake of his head in response. Technoblade sighed in relief. "Can you walk?" he asked next, getting another shake. "I'll carry you."
He scooped the kid up in his arms, Tubbo wasting no time to clamp his arms tightly around Techno's neck and bury his face in his shoulder. His entire body was trembling. Wilbur had climbed from his own side of the car, limping slightly as he made his way around. Techno gave him a once-over with his eyes, but similar to Tubbo he seemed to have escaped with minor injuries. The crash had been a head-on collision, so that made sense.
When Wilbur saw Phil he went pale. "Shit-"
Sirens were growing louder in the distance, the rapid approach of help on the way. The owner of the other car must have called for them. They were sitting in their front seat, phone pressed to their ear. But he didn't care to check up on them until his family was alright first. Technoblade bit through the pain so he could carry Tubbo over to Tommy's side, putting him down on the ground. The kid wasted no time latching onto his best friend's hand, getting a small whine from Tommy. "Stay here," Techno told them.
Wilbur was looking around desperately, at a loss for what to do. They couldn't get Phil out of the car for fear of making his condition worse. "Wilbur," Techno said, snapping his brother out of his daze. "Did you get hurt?"
"Ankle's busted, I think." Wilbur winced as he tried to move the offending foot. "Tommy?" He glanced over at the other two, tension evident on his face. It was clear he didn't dare approach. Wilbur was never any good with blood, getting easily squeamish. "Is he...?"
"I don't know," Techno said. His head hurt more and more with each passing minute, making it harder to keep up a conversation or even think.
Wilbur averted his eyes worriedly, looking at Techno instead. "And you?"
"I'm fine," he lied.
"Your leg-"
"It's fine," he repeated, interrupting Wilbur before he could finish. The sirens became louder still. They watched as the first ambulance rounded the corner.
Techno told Wilbur to ride with Phil in the ambulance while he would stick with the other two. The drive to the hospital passed in a blur, a flurry of sounds and movement that hardly broke through the increasing stupor that was settling on his mind.
While Tommy was carted off on a gurney, a nurse herded Techno into a different room, Tubbo clinging to his shoulders again. She was kind, spoke to them in a soft voice, and Techno did his best to answer her questions without getting distracted. His leg was checked on and given sutures in what had to be record time, probably because he wasn't being subtle about his impatience. He watched her clean Tubbo up a bit and give him a lollipop for being so good. By then Techno was too anxious to see the others to wait any longer, refusing her attempts to perform further examinations or treatments on him.
Wilbur was in the waiting room, all muscles tensed as he sat hunched over. Somebody had given him an ice pack for his ankle, which he had propped up on a second chair. At that moment, he looked so much older to Techno than he was supposed to be. Scared and fraught with too much stress to bear, hair a mess and without his beanie – lost somewhere in the crash. Though he still smiled thinly at them as Techno sat down next to him, Tubbo curled up in his lap.
"Phil?" Techno asked lowly.
"They're taking care of him now," Wilbur said. "He woke up in the ambulance, in a real frenzy. As you could imagine." Wilbur laughed lightly, but it was obviously just an attempt to elevate the mood.
Techno had only seen their father in moments where his children had been hurt a handful of times, but the experiences stuck with him. He nodded.
What commenced then was a waiting game. Technoblade got up after a little while, feeling incapable to sit still with the anxiety still wafting through him. Tubbo perched on Wilbur's laps instead, chin resting against Wilbur's chest while they mumbled at each other and soon falling asleep with his hands curled into Wilbur's shirt. Techno paced to and fro the waiting room, stubbornly continuing to ignore the occasional sting in his wounded leg whenever he pulled on the stitches. Wilbur asked him to see about getting some drinks from a vending machine down the hallway so Techno did. He also got some of those shitty precut sandwiches wrapped in plastic film when he realized none of them had dinner yet, though Techno was too nauseous to consider eating.
His headache throbbed and he squinted at the hospital's bright lighting as he paced, feeling increasingly worse. Adrenaline was draining from his system fast, leaving him with only the pain and the ghostly tendrils of exhaustion sneaking up on him. It felt like somebody had taken a vice and attached it to both his temples, turning the crank relentlessly until the pressure became near unbearable. His vision had turned from slightly blurry to refusing to focus at all.
A doctor approached them.
Technoblade listened to their explanation but hardly understood anything through how muddled his comprehension was becoming. All he heard was that both their father and little brother were alive, doing well. Tommy needed surgery and Phil had to remain for at least one night longer, but they were going to be just fine.
They were going to be fine.
Relief flooded Techno's body, drowning out all else at once. For the first time since the crash, he felt like he could truly breathe again. His shoulder slumped down, incapable to keep them upright any longer. The room was spinning in circles around him.
Wilbur sounded alarmed. "Tech, you're bleeding."
Techno frowned, not understanding what Wilbur meant until he became aware of strange wetness against his upper lip. He reached one hand up to find blood dripping from his nose. "Wha-" His lightheadedness suddenly increased tenfold as the blurriness grew and overtook all the rest, narrowing his perception down to a small focal point in front of him and then faded to nothing.
Failing to catch himself on a chair on the way down, Technoblade slumped to the floor.
When he came to it was to the worried faces of his family.
Tubbo was curled up on a chair in the corner, a tin hospital blanket covering his tiny frame. Two more chairs were pulled up to either side of the bed, Phil sat in one of them with Wilbur in the other. Techno blinked wearily, having trouble remembering exactly what had happened. His vision refused to sharpen, head pounding as if somebody was beating him repeatedly with a hammer. The acidic aftertaste in his mouth told him he had puked at some point.
But his attention was mostly pulled by Phil. The older man had a bandage around his head, a bruise blossoming from beneath the wrapping. While he was a lot paler than Technoblade was comfortable with, his blue eyes were finally open again.
"Dad?" Techno croaked, only now noticing how dry his throat was. He almost never used anything but Phil's first name for their adopted father figure, but if any situation warranted the affinity a car crash had to be it.
Phil's gaze shot to him as if woken up from a reverie, but a fragile smile tugged at his lips. "Tech, how are you feeling?"
Techno tried to sit up, but the iv in his arm prevented him from going very far. Wilbur scoffed as he pushed Techno back down on the bed. "Can you just stay still for ten minutes, you fuck." He sounded angry.
"What happened?" Techno asked, confused.
"You went and fainted on us like an idiot," Wilbur bit out. Techno was still at a loss for what had him so worked up so he turned to Phil instead.
"It's called a delayed concussion," their father said mildly. "You're not supposed to run around when you're hurt, Techno. You should have told somebody."
"Oh..." There wasn't really anything he could say to that. "I didn't notice."
"Do you have any idea how scared I was?" Wilbur snapped at him, and it's then when Techno saw the moist edges to his eyes, the tears only held at bay by self-control. The clear echoes of fear still in every gesture. "Watching you collapse out of nowhere, I thought you were dying or something, you could have-" he cut himself off.
The guilt Techno felt at those words was hard to dismiss. "I'm sorry."
Wilbur crossed his arms and looked away, but Techno could tell from the look on his face that he had already been forgiven. That Wilbur hadn't been truly mad at him in the first place.
Phil stood up to wrap his arms around Techno, a tight hold that was meant to be equally reassuring for the both of them. Techno couldn't help leaning into that hold, feeling Phil's warmth seep into him. "It's alright, we're fine. We all are. That's the most important part." The words were not aimed at anyone in particular.
Technoblade still felt himself agreeing with them.