"Hey." Dave yawned, rolling over on Clay's bed. "Have you heard of that new game that just got released?" Clay looked over at Dave, his back pressed against the front of the bed. At the mention of video games, his eyes lit up. 

"You're talking about Minecraft, right? It sounds so cool!" Dave nodded, stretching his arm to reach the controller on the carpeted floor. Clay noticed, and picked up the other one, leaning forward to switch on the TV in front of the two of them. 

"The concept is simple, but that's the best part. It doesn't need to be big and complex, it's easy to learn and difficult to master, just like any good game." Dave explained, his voice oddly soft. He used his controller to scroll through the apps onscreen until he got to the shop menu. 

"You know a ton about video games Davie, almost as much as I do!" Clay laughed, prompting the partial pinket to shoot him a piercing glare. 

"I told you not to call me that you homeless telletubby!" He warned in a low voice before turning back to the TV and maneuvering his selector to the search button, his expression softening slightly. "And I do know a lot about video games. I want to design them when I grow up." A small smile pulled at the corner of Dave's lips, and Clay thought his heart was about to burst from the cuteness.

"Wow.. That's kinda dumb." Dave whipped around, whacking Clay on the head with his controller before turning back to the TV, an expression of annoyance rippling across his features.

"I'm sure it's better than whatever you wanna be!" He shot back, and Clay blushed, still rubbing where Dave had whacked him with the controller. Maybe what he wanted to do was just the slightest bit childish, but hey! Every single one of his teachers had always said that he was never gonna grow up anyway; he would just be fulfilling their expectations! 

"Not true! I want to be a gaming YouTuber and get ten million subscribers. That's way better than being stuck in a dark room all day writing gibberish on a computer screen!" Dave huffed sarcastically, eyes glued to the TV. Despite his show of irritation, his lips curled up into a small smile. The thought of Clay playing a video game he'd designed in front of millions of viewers.. It was a dream too good to come true.

"Sureee. Anyway, I downloaded the game for you. Do you wanna try it out?" Stars in his eyes, Clay looked up at Dave, breaking into a huge grin. 

"YESSSSS!" Throwing an arm around his neck, Clay pulled Dave off the bed and onto the floor, giving him a one-armed hug. Dave swore softly as his head knocked into the thin rug, but broke into quiet laughter, returning the hug.

"Alright," he said finally, a warm reluctance edging his words. "let me up you little gremlin. Lets play this thing." Clay snickered, and flopped on top of Dave, controller outstretched.

"Nahhh. Let's just play like this." Dave let out a not-too-quiet grunt of displeasure, but didn't push Clay off. The sandy blonde grinned triumphantly, propping himself up on his elbows so he could see the TV screen.

The game was (thankfully) free, so it didn't take long for the two to read through the directions and reach the character creator screen. 

"Hmm.." Humming quietly, Dave hesitantly typed a few letters into the username space.

"Blade? Really?" Clay laughed, shooting an amused glance towards the man underneath him, who turned away, blushing red from embarrassment.

"Tommy always calls me Blade so.. It's not like I had anything better!" Dave defended, refusing to meet Clay's eyes.

"Okay okay, fair enough. But it sounds stupid on its own. How about.." He paused, face shifting to one of deep thought. "Cyberknife?" He suggested. "Or.. Ooh! How about Technoblade!" Dave's face split into a wide grin. 

"Technoblade." He repeated, savoring each syllable. "I like it." Clay returned his grin, wiggling his eyebrows. Dave wasted no time in punching in his new username, setting his skin on auto choose. The second he finished filling out his character, Clay practically threw his controller into his arms.

"Help me choose mine!" He whined, bouncing up and down on Dave's back. The man let out a pained grunt, whacking Clay with his controller once more, before picking up the one Clay threw at him.

"Fine! Stop bouncing like a kangaroo who's had seven cups of coffee first though." Clay complied quickly, and looked down at Dave with an innocent expression, batting his eyelashes. "..well it can't be a long name." The partial brunet said after a beat, looking away from Clay with a light dusting of pink on his cheeks.

"Why not?" 

"My name is already pretty long. Yours should only be a single syllable." Dave broke off, sinking deeper into thought.

"Its gotta describe me though." Clay reminded him, tapping an unorganized tune on the wooden floor with his fingernails.

"What about Dream?" His fingers froze, and Clay felt his entire face flush a vibrant red. "Though, to be fair, nightmare might be a bit more accurate." Dave chuckled, entirely unaware of the  emotional chaos occurring within Clay that he was entirely responsible for.

"Ah- Hwa??" Dave turned his head, staring up at Clay with a face full of confusion. 

"Dude, do you really not get it?" Clay shook his head slightly, acutely aware of his- their current positions. He didn't trust himself to say anything. Dave just sighed, averting his eyes and gripping the controller even tighter. "I.. Well.." Dropping his head, he let out a load groan. "It sounds embarrassing now! Come on man!" Clay chuckled weakly, waiting somewhat impatiently for Dave to reveal his reasoning. His fingers had long since halted their tireless drumming.

"It's just.. You like to daydream a lot?" Dave blushing was one of Clay's favorite things. Ever. And it was made even better by the way Dave still wasn't quite meeting his gaze. "Whenever I look over at you during class, you're always gazing out the window or something.. And Daydream is two syllables, not one, so I just thought.." Dave groaned again, burying his face in his hands. Clay was too busy trying not to bust out laughing to notice. "I'm sorryyy!" he moaned, his face dyed a beautiful pink. "It's a stupid name never mindddd!" Clay finally lost his internal struggle, a tea-kettle-worthy wheeze ripping itself from his throat. He collapsed into a puddle of laugher, sliding like a rag doll off of Dave's back and onto the floor as his body shook with wave after wave of laughter.

"N-no, no!" He finally choked out, flopping an arm in Dave's direction after recovering slightly from his laugh attack. "Dream. I like iiIITT!" He assured his friend, collapsing once more into a fit of giggles. Dave snorted, but a small smile wormed its way onto his lips regardless.

"If you like it, then put it in you homeless teletubby!" He shouted, throwing Clay's controller at him. The man squealed like a pig as it bounced off his shoulder, but it only served to send him deeper into his giggle fit.

"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!" Clay yelled it as a soldier would a war cry: a final hurrah before his ultimate demise. It seemed to echo around the room, bouncing back into Dave's ears from every surface. 

"YOU LITTLE-" 

~•~

Months passed. The usernames Dream and Technoblade rose steadily through the assorted newly established Minecraft Leaderboards. Both were extremely good at PVP Combat, though Technoblade was eventually deemed superior through a series of 1v1's that left the entire community stunned. Dream redeemed himself through the completion of one of the game's most difficult Parkor courses however, proving himself a force of nature in his own right.

Their names dominated any and all leaderboards for (almost) every competition within the game. When Dream started a streaming channel for his frequent speedruns of the game, it amassed nearly five million subscribers in the first week despite him not playing with a facecam, and his homemade "action music" became an instant meme.

Technoblade was no slouch either, and frequented several high-profile PVP tournaments monthly. He was a critical component to any competition looking to become something big. He was a driving force behind the success of Minecraft Mondays, a weekly competition where some of the biggest names in the game teamed up to win several different minigames. Though the competition itself was short-lived, the brutal legacy it awarded Technoblade was not.

Both players made more friends through their respective circles, but their bond remained as close as ever, if not closer. They moved in together, and Dream immediately dropped any lingering plans to attend college in favor of devoting all of his energy towards his channel. Technoblade continued to attend a nearby university, and Dream often woke up in the middle of the night to the quiet clacking of his keyboard. 

Technoblade's family also dipped their toes into the Minecraft community. Tommy experimented with the new game add-ons or "mods" that people made for Minecraft, uploading videos on them to a channel of his own. Technoblade camoed on it occasionally, but never let on that they were biologically related. Wilbur stayed out of it for the most part, but would join Tommy in his videos, and troll people anonymously with Technoblade. Phil preferred to stick to a recent gamemode update "hardcore". A player only had one life with which to navigate the usual game. When he was stressed, Technoblade liked to watch Phil's videos. 

Even better, unbeknownst to well.. Everyone, Technoblade had been studying videogame design in his free time, and was developing a new kind of game and controller. It was going to to be a birthday gift for Dream, and he had five months to finish perfecting it. Everything was going so well.

~•~

Well, we can't have that now can we! 

Yep, I'm back. I am so sorry for such delayed updates, but I've really been struggling with both my mental health, and my friend's mental health. Thank you all so much for your patience and continued support, and have a nice night. 

<3

(Note: I almost started crying because I deleted the entire first chunk of this chapter, but I got it back so its finE)