First Chapter of the new story. I'll probably pepper in a chapter every week or so given the time. Hope you enjoy it, even though this one was just some setting up. Trust me, some plot is coming.
Also probably a change in title eventually. I'll find a better one, I swear!

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“You think we woke him up?”

“Well with you banging around like crazy I’m sure he is!”

“Well you’re the one shouting like an idiot, you’re totally the one who woke him up!”

“We don’t know he’s awake!”

Tech clenched his eyes shut even tighter. The dragon-dog hybrid had been listening to this bickering for the past five minutes, completely, one-hundred percent awake. He’d hoped that they’d give up after a minute or two, but there was no hope for that. Both had even failed to notice that he woke up the second Dale stepped on a bag of chips in the center of the room! How did they expect him to sleep through this

“Well if he isn’t awake, you’re definitely the one who’s going to do it before it’s time for the surprise!”

“I’m the quiet one, Perc. We all know that!” Dale retorted, rather loudly at that.

Finally, Tech decided he had enough of this. With an exasperated groan, he shot up in his bed and glared up at the two bears in a visual standoff on either side of him. “Do you guys know how hard it is to sleep when you guys are arguing a foot away?”

That managed to snap them out of it. Simultaneously, the two looked down to their brother, both in shock over the fact that he was awake. Dale was the first to regain the ability to speak. “Wait, you were awake the whole time?”

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” Percy demanded.

“I thought you’d go away if I played dead,” Tech said with a little smirk. Both of his brothers sighed in exasperation. With a bit of a chuckle mixed in as well.

“Well, guess the original plan just got screwed over,” Dale reasoned, giving Percy a glance. “But either way…”

Percy grinned and brought his left hand out from behind his back. “Surprise! Happy 17th birthday, dude!” Tech’s eyes went wide. In his large paw was a cupcake, strawberry of course, with vanilla icing positively covered in sprinkles. The hybrid practically started to drool at the sight. And atop it was a candle shaped like the number 17, the wick still burning.

“I think we made the right cake choice,” Dale whispered to Percy. A sly smirk adorned his face as he watched Tech flap his wings and fly up to the cupcake. Given that he was a mere inch tall, their “little” brother was absolutely dwarfed by his birthday treat. Even the candle flame had him beat in sheer size. But with a powerful gust of his wings, he was able to snuff out the burning wick in a second.

“This looks amazing guys,” Tech said with a grin. “I didn’t even remember it was my birthday, how did you guys?”

Dale chuckled and rubbed Tech’s head with a finger. “Of course we’d never forget, squirt!”

“Yeah, we’re your brothers,” Percy added with a grin. “We’d have to be pretty shitty ones to forget when you were born.” Tech chuckled, but his grin drooped a bit at that. It left a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. However, he was sure to correct that mistake, and quickly adopted a somewhat more forced smile. It was enough to fool his much larger brothers though.

Percy lowered his free hand to just beneath Tech’s hovering form, and allowed him to drift down onto the pudgy palm. “Now since it’s your birthday, your first present is that you don’t have to walk or fly at all! We’ll be your personal chauffeurs.”

Tech raised his eyebrow and chuckled. “Seriously?” he laughed. “You guys are such dorks…”

“Oh shut up,” Dale said with a grin. “You’re just as bad as us! Remember what you did for Valentine’s Day?”

Tech’s face burned as he remembered that particular holiday. “Oh come on, I was five! Why do you keep bringing that up.”

“Because it was adorable how you dressed up as Cupid and gave everyone a personalized card,” he snickered.

Percy gave an overdramatic, wistful sigh as they began to leave the bedroom. “It feels like just yesterday you were a little kid who wouldn’t stop bugging me to play Candy Land. What happened to that brother?”

“Oh God, you’re turning into Mom…”

The three erupted into a chorus of laughter as they made their way down the hall to the living room. This wasn’t exactly an unusual morning for the three, outside of the fact that it was one of their birthdays and Percy had stayed the night. It was still common to hear rapturous laughter and shouting echoing throughout the apartment. Their neighbors were not exactly fans of the brothers.

“Oh right, we’ve got one more surprise for you,” Dale said with a smirk as they entered the living room.

Tech’s ears perked up immediately. “Really? What is it? I hope it’s not food, we all know I can’t really finish the last thing.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it, you know I’ll finish off whatever you don’t eat,” Dale announced with a hearty chuckle.

Percy raised an eyebrow. “You said I could eat it!”

“That was before I knew you could bake.”

“That’s bull and you know it!”

“Uh, guys?” Tech squeaked. “Can we just get back to the surprise?”

Both of the bears blinked in surprise, then grinned sheepishly. “Oh, right. Totally forgot about that,” Percy muttered. “It’s right in the kitchen, next to your pancakes! Your size of course.”

“Strawberry pancakes?” he asked, mouth watering.

“You know it!” Dale affirmed with a nod. They led him into the kitchen finally, and Tech immediately took notice of his surprise. On the kitchen table sat a pile of the most beautiful thing on earth. To Tech anyway.

“You got me new parts!?” Tech squealed, not even thinking as he took flight from Percy’s hand. He ignored their chuckling as he zipped over to the pieces of computer parts strewn about the table in their packaging. Just from what he could see, there was plenty to work with. He would be able to make a whole new computer just from this! And there were even some small parts he could work with to actually make a workable interface for himself.

“You like it?” Dale asked with a grin. “Took us weeks to actually figure out what parts went with what.”

“Maybe we should have just had you make a wishlist on Amazon or something,” Percy said with his arms crossed. “You’d probably know better than us.”

Tech’s face burst out into a wide grin. “It’s perfect guys! I can’t believe you actually payed for all this stuff!”

“Eh, it took a paycheck or two,” Dale replied with a shrug, “but anything to keep you off my back for a week or two, right?”

“Oh, very funny,” Tech retorted with barely restrained laughter. “But seriously, thanks guys!”

“Anything for our little brother,” Percy replied, picking up a small plate from the counter. It was dwarfed in his hands, yet still gigantic to Tech. “Now leave the machine parts alone, it’s time for you to actually eat breakfast.”

Tech sighed wistfully and lazily flew over. He’d barely been awake ten minutes and this was already turning out to be an amazing birthday. With any luck, the rest of this year would be the same.