Chapter Text
Labels.
Now labels, they were useful for a lot of things.
Labels were useful for knowing that oddly specific spice you needed in a recipe.
Labels were useful for knowing which coat was yours, so at home time you wouldn’t bring home theirs by mistake.
Labels were used for a lot of important things.
But some things didn’t have labels, some things that probably should.
One of those things, were potions.
The potions that were always left unattended in Philza’s study.
Philza really needed to go and get a lock.
Philza would say that he was a pretty good father, as good as a father that he could be with three chaotic children.
He tried his best and tried to provide as much as he could for them. Adventuring had its perks, gold was a common find when searching, so he was always able to gift his sons the nice things that they wanted.
Of course, he didn’t travel as much now from when he was younger, he wasn’t just going to abandon his children for some shiny objects.
But even he , Philza Minecraft himself, father of three… Could get tired.
He could get exhausted looking after them.
And even he had his days where he didn’t pay full attention to them when he probably should be.
This was one of those days.
“Wilbur could you maybe…” Phil didn’t really know how to describe it. “Could you maybe… Not dance with the fish? I get It’s your favorite food and all…” Techno snorted, looking at Tommy’s confused face.
“But could you maybe… Put the fish back in the freezer? We’re going to eat it later tonight, and I prefer my fish… Single.”
Techno wheezed, patting his twin on the shoulder who was giving Philza the most ‘I hate you so much but you’re still my dad face’ that the teen could give him.
“Instead of reenacting the little mermaid, why don’t you boys go and do something fun?” The youngest piped up at that, instantly looking up to his dad at even the mere mention of ‘fun’.
“Yes! Yes! Fun! Let’s do something fun!” He turned to his big brothers, who gave him a half-smile. They internally sighed, knowing that ‘fun’ consisted of baby-ish games and letting the gremlin win to be nice.
“Perfect! What are you boys going to do?” Phil knew that they all had no idea, he was just sort of being a dick to Wilbur and Techno. He found it a little funny, only a bit. The last time ended up with Technoblade being Rapunzel while Wilbur was the horse.
The child paused to ponder for a minute, a long minute where Phil had to quietly call Tommy's name to get him to pay attention to the question. “Oh uh… Wizards and magic!”
Techno and Wilbur glanced at each other. That one actually sounded kind of fun…
“Awesome, Mate.” He beamed at his 9-year-old. “Why don’t you go upstairs to your evil lair and make some potions, yeah?” The kid nodded back enthusiastically, already racing his tiny feet up the stairs.
Once his youngest was out of sight, he turned to his 16-year-olds. “No killing him, yeah? I don’t want to deal with a respawn today, thank you very much.” He stated while grinning.
“Yes Sir, Philza Minecraft Sir!” Technoblade saluted mockingly as Wilbur ran up the stairs, he was quick to follow.
The Twins went into their bedrooms, probably to plan out a story or find some old (definitely not real) weapons.
Tommy on the other hand, was in the bathroom, planning. He was messing around with all of the shampoo, conditioners… Fancy soaps, trying his absolute hardest to make the best most brilliant potion.
A potion that would make him super strong! Something to make him invincible against the very evil brother-wizards!
He dipped his finger into the shampoo lid he was using to keep all of this in and grimaced at the sticky texture. Potions weren’t meant to be sticky!
The kid tried putting some water in, but only grimaced harder when all that happened was it became more wet and watery. It still felt weird, it didn’t feel like a potion drink… This felt more like… Like something that wasn’t a big-man potion!
He tried to think of what to do…
Oh! Phil had potions!
He’d seen his dad make them tons of times! He wasn’t allowed to help, obviously… But he’d seen it enough times to know how to make the cool red ones!
Plus, Phil always had potions out! He kept them on this cool-looking table with blaze powder… Sugar… And other cool things!
Yes, that was what he was going to do!
He’d be really really strong for reals!
“Tommy! You ready?” He heard Wilbur call.
He’d be really strong after this game.
The three of them thought this game was really fun! Tommy didn’t have any weapons, so Techno and Wilbur begrudgingly gave some of their impressive collection to the kid, not really caring knowing that their weapons would be stolen by each other throughout the game anyway.
They had to ‘make pretend’ for the potions until Tommy could go make them, he hadn’t told his brother or his dad of his plan. Knowing that they would probably take it! Plus they kept saying it was ‘unfair’ to use healing potions in the game.
That was stupid, if he made them, they’d have no choice!
Still, Techno somehow won again… He always ended up winning. Which was stupid and dumb.
Wilbur looked the most like a wizard out of all of them, he had the wizardy-glasses and the wizardry hat and the wizardy-
Actually, he looked normal.
“Wilbur, are you a real wizard?!” The child gasped, believing he’d just connected the biggest dots of all time.
Wilbur snorted at the child's seriousness, wondering what to say. “How did you ever find out, Tom’s?” He questioned the small child. Wilbur glanced to Techno while smirking, who instantly got the idea.
“You always look like a wizard!” The three of them could hear Phil abruptly quietly laugh, which the man tried to hide with a cough.
Okay, Wilbur took a bit of offense to that. “How so?” He questioned.
Techno could honestly see the resemblance stunningly.
“Well first… Your face is shaped like a magic person!” The way Techno’s breathing changed, Wilbur could tell that his twin was silently laughing. Wilbur nodded for the small child to continue.
“And then… Your glasses are all wizards! Only wizards and magic people have round wizard glasses!” Techno had to turn around, trying not to look at his brother because he knew he would instantly start laughing.
“Anything else?” Wilbur mumbled, not liking this anymore.
“Uhhhh… Nope! Your hat’s Wizardy, but you don’t wear that every day… Maybe it's because we’re the only ones who know you’re magic now!”
Wilbur sighed, smiling lightly as he didn't want to ruin the child's fun. “Yup, you got me. Now, to keep my magical powers a secret… Don’t bring this up ever again, okay Tom’s?”
Techno and Philza didn’t even try to hide the fact that they were laughing now. God, Philza had heard that all the way from downstairs , that… Was embarrassing.
Techno piped up. “Why don’t we take a break for like… An hour, so we can plan more magic stuff to do, yeah?” The child nodded, not knowing that this was just their brother's plan to get some time to themselves.
Plus, It’s not like the child would actually time an hour, the kid normally just waited until his brothers were ready, so this was perfect.
Perfect because now… He could finally make his potions!
And nobody could stop him!
He was right, he decided to wait a few minutes after his big brothers went into their rooms, and when he couldn’t hear Phil sneakily sneak into his dad's office.
Silently, he made sure that the door was nice and shut. He didn’t lock it, knowing the chains would make that annoying noisy clinking sound, like when someone had too many keys on their keychain.
He had successfully gotten in.
The office was really cool! But Phil always did such boring stuff in it… Like he would constantly write and write and write … He had so much cool stuff that he could be doing! Like playing with these cool glowy villager dolls! They looked really epic!
So did the apples! They were golden! And Philza just had them… Sitting there! Untouched!I
Tommy had only had them once, he wasn’t too sure that he wanted to remember it… But something happened in the nether, and Philza gave him one that was even glowier . He remembered seeing his own face in the shine of the apple amongst all of the red.
But… Phil told them all that they couldn’t have them, so he wouldn’t touch those.
Phil hadn’t said anything about the cool potions though!
So climbing up onto one of the miniature wooden stools, Tommy spread out his tiny little arms and grabbed as many potions that his arms could handle.
He tried his absolute hardest not to drop any, any clinking sound would let Philza know.
And right now, Phil had no clue. And he wanted it to stay that way.
Once he put all of them on the floor where he could see them, he opened up the empty ones.
So… Here’s the thing…
He didn’t actually know what he was doing. All he knew is that some of the colors did cool things while the others did not so cool things.
He did, however, know that there were two types! One that he could throw and ones that he could drink.
He didn’t wanna use anything that could actually harm his brothers, he just wanted to be strong! So he was going to make the drinking ones!
He knew what the bottles looked like for the drinking ones, so holding the empty containers he looked through the potions.
None of them had any names on them, but he was sure that the coolest-looking ones would be the best!
He decided to pick out the dark red one, he knew that red meant love… So it must mean healing! And this one was extra darky-red so it must be really strong!
Techno had told him many times that green meant kindness. He’d also heard that from undertale, he was pretty sure… Kindness was powerful, so that had to also be a… Power potion? All he knew is he was grabbing that one too.
Two really strong potions!
The child thought…
If he brought both and his brothers saw him drinking one of them… They could steal the others. So what if he mixed them?
As he popped the corks off of the bottles, he grimaced at the smell. It didn’t smell sweet. Nor did it smell ‘kind’...
Phil had told him not to dislike something before he tried it…
So carefully, the child poured the magical potions into the empty bottle, quietly gasping at the fizziness that was happening inside of the glass.
They swirled around and fizzled and cracked… Kind of like pop rocks in your mouth…
He’d done it! He was gonna be such a big man!
A big strong man!
He was fascinated by the way the smell changed. It smelt… Worse, to be fair… But… Oh well.
Pushing the cork back in the top, he now had his own super-strong potion! Oh, Wilbur and Techno were going down.
Tommy still had to put the other stuff back, so he did. Quietly, and carefully… Only daring to put a few at a time to not spill anything. He couldn’t even let Philza, his own Dad, know of this plan.
Once he was sure everything was in its normal place… (Or close to normal) He slipped the bottled potion into his pocket, that way if anyone saw him… They wouldn’t see his secret plan in his hands.
Luckily, Tommy hadn’t needed to worry, as nobody even heard him leave and go back to his room.
He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but he was there a while , so Techno and Wilbur had to be ready soon…
He ever so gently slipped the potion out from his pocket, grasping it softly.
The kid knew that potions didn’t last too long, but this one… He felt something. He was merely holding it now, yet… He could feel the power. He could feel how strong it was through the thin glass…
He knew that this was the one.
Whatever it did, he knew it would last for a while.
It was when he heard Wilbur come out of his room to go into Technos, he knew that it was time.
Taking grasp of the cork, he pulled it out, satisfied with the ‘POP ’ noise that it made. He… Wasn’t as pleased with the smell, but he knew that this smell had to be the scent of strongness!
He also knew that he would have to drink it all, preferably in one go… For it to be at it strongest.
…
Bottoms up.
It… Wait what was meant to happen-
Oh.
He let go of the glass that he’d realized he was holding onto so tightly. Flinching as it crashed onto the carpeted floor. As the rest of the potion spilled, the remaining amount splashed deep into the carpet.
When it began to sizzle away at the fake fur, Tommy knew he was fucked.
He instantly started coughing, the kind of cough when you swallowed water wrong. Like you were choking. Like you wanted so badly to be able to breathe without everything you do is cut off by that God obnoxious sound-
The coughing finally tapered off as he heard Phil yell from downstairs.
“You alright, Mate?” The man called, hearing all of the noise coming from his youngest.
“I’m Good!” Tommy responded quickly, he was good! He was just… Coughing, he was fine… He’d never actually drank a potion before.
Wait no, he had.
But he’d never had one like this before! This was probably normal, right?
He hadn’t heard Philza respond to anything else, or make any noise that sounded like walking. So he assumed he was good, and that his Dad wasn’t going to come up.
That was good…
He took a deep breath, trying to remember in his kid brain about what he was going to do.
Oh, right. He was so going to win this game.
“Are you absolutely sure you don’t wanna time out, Tommy?” Wilbur worried, while still clicking his ‘wizard’ sword back at the child.
‘The child’ nodded, not wanting to give up on this game all because his stupid stomach was hurting. “You're only saying that because I’m really strong now!”
“I’m pretty sure he’s only saying that because you’ve had one of your hands on your stomach this entire time since we’ve started fighting.” Techno corrected, quickly ducking as Tommy reached to throw one of the hard plastic swords at his older brother's face.
“Fine! I’m only gonna go to the bathroom, you two keep fighting, Wizards!” The twins turned to each other on that, grabbing the closest (still definitely fake) weapons and beginning to charge at each other.
Meanwhile, Tommy felt like absolute dogshit.
He was standing on the little bathroom stall to be able to see himself in the mirror. He still wasn’t tall enough to see himself without it.
He felt really strange. Not… The best
His mouth felt really dry, but he’d just had some water! His throat and… Basically, everything inside of him felt painful…
The child thought…
Well, from what he learned from spiderman… It usually hurt before he got the powers, and… He was sure the hurting would stop soon.
Then he’d show them, then he’d show them how big of a man he was! And how he would be the strongest wizard!
It had taken Tommy two more breaks for the twins to finally decide on calling the game off, much to the displeasure of their little brother.
“Pleaseeee. I’ve been waiting foreverrr for this!”
Techno gave him a confused look. “You literally came up with the idea on the spot a few hours ago.”
“Not that! I spent all this time making magical potions and now we’re gonna give up!”
Really? Was that what this was about?
“Tom’s, your fake bathroom-potions aren’t gonna do anything. We’ll play again in a bit, yeah?” But… What if the potion wore off in a bit?
No… It couldn’t, the pain had to go. Then he’d get the powers.
He didn’t know how long the feeling would last for, so…
“Fine, but we’re playing again later!” The child stated, the tone and disappointment really left no room for his older brothers to disagree.
“Sure, you come to us though, okay?” Techno simply responded he was 90% sure that the kid would just forget, or get bored.
Plus he was sure the child probably still wouldn’t be in the mood if he had a stomach ache.
Tommy only sighed and went back to his room, taking his fake weapons with him.
Tommy felt as if he was burning . Not on the outside… His mouth felt like the time Tubbo swapped his ketchup with hot sauce. His stomach was fucking killing him!
The kid truly had no way to describe this feeling, other than it was bad…
For someone whose inside felt so hot, he had no idea why he was shaking… Or why his face was so wet…
He couldn’t stop what was happening…
The way, even though he felt like he could drink a lake, his mouth was watering so much…
Nor could he stop the silent sobs that came from him.
It was one of those crying attacks where you could only sob, and not get any word out otherwise it would be cut off with another hitch of air.
He had been pretty silent this entire time…
Up until the gagging.
Oh, there was no being quiet on that one.
He could only lean over his carpeted bedroom floor as he painfully gagged, loudly. He knew he was screwed as he heard those stupid fucking footsteps again.
Just when he thought that he could possibly make it to his small bedroom bin…
It was already too late.
He was so fucking stupid…
Nothing he could do could stop his stupid fucking sobs, now his carpet was ruined … And it was all his fault.
He hadn’t noticed the soft hand gently resting on his back.
All he knew was that his bin was now in front of him.
At least this time, he wouldn’t miss…
At some point, his breathing and crying had calmed down enough for him to wipe the wetness on his face with his sleeve. He realized that he was still in his room, the door was closed and someone was by his side.
He sniffed, lightly crying as he looked to see who it was.
“It’s okay, you’re alright Mate…”
Philza.
God, Tommy wanted to cry again, out of embarrassment and pain.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean too I promise-” Phil hushed him, softly pulling the boy's sweaty hair out of his face.
“Don’t apologize for getting sick, Mate. It’s not your fault.”
But it was his fault.
“You feeling well enough to stand up?” He shook his head, no. No way was he getting up. He wasn’t sure if it was from nausea or from the pain.
“That’s alright. I think you might have food poisoning, Mate.” Phil mumbled, sounding unsure himself.
Tommy could only groan, not managing to tell him what it actually was.
“Though… All of us had the same thing to eat… And the only thing you drank today was apple juice…” Phil trailed off, as if he was trying to convince himself of something…
Tommy only sobbed harder from the guilt.
Phil quickly looked over, looking a little spooked that the mention of food made him cry? “Sorry, sorry… I won’t bring up food, It’s my bad.” He apologized, quickly.
Even while soothing his son, he still wanted to ask. “How long have you felt like this, bud?” He questioned softly.
Tommy went silent.
He didn’t know how in the Hell he would say it without Philza being mad.
What if… Phil hated him, or never spoke to him again… Or… What if he used more bad potions on him as a punishment!
Even while looking directly into a puke-filled trash-can, Tommy turned away. “Yourgonnabemad…”
Phil had not picked up a word that was said. “Speak up a bit, mate.” He said, not unkindly.
“You’re gonna be mad…” He then decided that he couldn’t and would not ever look at Philza Minecraft ever again.
Phil couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t be upset with Tommy, but if it was something bad enough to make the kid throw up, he wanted to know what it was. So the best he could tell his son was.
“Tell me, please Tommy…” He asked softly.
His kid went back into hiccupy sobs as he tried to explain what happened… “I… Went in your office…” He sobbed.
Philza was instantly on alert, he didn’t just use the office for work. He kept dangerous shit in there, memories from adventures… Weapons… Everything in there was something a child shouldn’t touch. He’d told them that they shouldn’t be in there without him!
Still, if he got mad at the kid, there was a chance he’d be too scared to tell Phil. And if it was deadly, he didn’t exactly want to take his time in this situation.
“Yeah? And then what, Mate?” He made sure his tone didn’t come off threatening at all, the same sort of tone you’d use when talking to a lost child.
“I… I wanted to be a bigger wizard than Wilbur ‘n Techno… So I thought of wizardy things that wizards do... “ He took a moment to let out another hiccupy sob as he continued. “And… And then I thought about magical stuff…”
Phil did NOT like where this was going, not at all. Nope, no. No.
“Did you touch the potions mate?” He just needed a yes or a no, Hell. He knew that he’d be able to have noticed the lack of potions. But that didn’t mean he knew which ones of the missing potions the kid had drank.
The way the kids breathing picked up again, and the tears that Philza had thought ran out came back, Philza’s theory was confirmed.
“Shh, shh. It’s okay, Mate. I just really need you to tell me which ones, yeah?”
Oh my God, he was panicking. He was freaking out so hard internally. This could go insanely wrong. He needed to act now.
“How about we… Do this!” Phil swooped his kid up, ignoring the wriggling of discomfort as he walked towards the door.
Wilbur and Techno were insanely close to the door when Phil opened it, he assumed that they likely had their ears pressed to it. And judging by his twins expressions, they had likely heard every. single. Word.
And if they hadn’t heard? He did not have time to explain to them, as he brought his youngest into the study. Not even bothering to shut the door, not like it would do anything.
“Okay, okay.” Phil breathed in anxiously, he saw that his son had made an attempt to put them back somewhat normally, but he could tell that they had all definitely been tampered with.
“Okay, Mate. Please, what were the colors? Which colors did you drink” He begged while looking over the pots. He didn’t keep track of how many potions he had, so he wasn’t able to just… Know which specific ones were gone.
“A red-y one and… A green one…I mixed them...” The kid croaked out, Godly ashamed and upset.
Two very fucking bad color choices.
Tommy’s shivering wasn’t helping his nerves either, the house had the heating on 25° C, not really hot, but warm enough that he shouldn’t be fucking shivering.
As Phil looked over the potions, he knew his son was definitely right, there was an insane lack of Greens and dark reds.
“Okay, Alright… Okay. You said you mixed them, huh Mate? Do you still have the bottle…?” If he could see that, he would be able to tell. Potions all had a distinct smell, even when mixed you would be able to tell.
He then thanked his Twins for eavesdropping as he soon heard a knocking on his office door. The door was open, so Techno and Wilbur kind of just… Poked their heads in.
“I… Found this on Tommy’s floor.” Techno mumbled, looking concerned at the paleness of his brother. Believing that it had just been something stupid like a stomach ache… Not… This
Wilbur couldn’t take his eyes off of his little brother either.
Phil thanked them both for the almost empty bottle.
“Also… I don’t really know if it helps… But I saw Tommy’s carpet… Burned? Where some of the potion spilled...It dripped through the floor too.”
That actually did help… A lot actually.
“You said burning…?” They nodded. “The only type of potion that’s strong enough to burn through stuff is Harming Two. Harming One feels hot, but not strong enough to burn anything.”
Harming Two was also known as the deadliest potion.
Phil had to Shift Tommy in his arms, who’s sobbing had soon begun to fade, Phil inspected the bottle close to his face. The small drops left were giving off a disgustingly deathly color. Not to mention the stench.
“Poison.”
Poison rotted away at the person's flesh until they were left on the brink of death. It couldn’t kill someone. But harming could, harming also sped up the job a significant amount. Hence why Phil had owned such strong potions…
Techno and Wilbur looked mortified. Even more so when Tommy groaned, deeper into Phil’s hold.
“Well… What do we do?!” Wilbur snapped, a little pissed off at the thinking montage everyone seemed to be re-creating.
“Right, Shit.” Phil abruptly stood up, a little too fast for someone with a child in their arms.
“Good news, Milk is our best friend right now. Bad news, the milk expired like a week ago.”
Techno stuttered. “We live on a farm , how do we not have fresh milk?”
Phil turned to face him. “Do you really want to risk traveling all the way to the stables fifteen minutes away? This potion already working four times regularly than usual. And I don’t exactly know when he drank it. So time is kind of important right now, Techno.”
He realized after he said it that maybe that came off a little… No, way too harshly.
Techno nodded anyway, seeming to understand as the three of them, minus Tommy, walked to the kitchen.
Phil thanked God that he was so lazy that he hadn’t poured the milk down the sink yet. Grabbing a glass with his child-free hand and pouring the disgusting-looking drink into the cup.
Tommy did not seem pleased with this plan, not at all. Slightly shifting away when Philza brought it up to his face.
Wilbur spoke up for his brother. Not wanting to watch these desperate attempts go down. “Tommy! It’s either you drink this, or probably die! Drink it.” He demanded.
The specific word choice worked, as Tommy flinched, and got distracted enough to look at Wilbur.
Phil hoped Tommy would forgive him for this, as he quickly pinched the kid's nose.
And Oh boy did the kid know what was about to happen, holding his breath for as long as he possibly could before opening his mouth.
Phil was quick to force his kid to drink it. Oh, Phil felt horrible about this and his kid probably felt worse, but it had to be done.
It was quite literally life or death.
In exchange for drinking the disgustingly expired two-week-old milk, you get to live.
After Phil was sure that he had swallowed enough (Giving him extra to cancel out any other deadly effects) He released his grip on Tommy's nose who instantly inhaled, giving an extremely tired pissed off glance to quite literally everyone.
Even if Phil had managed to get Tommy to drink the milk, he knew that this still wasn’t over.
“Sorry Mate had to. Wanna go back upstairs to your room?” His kid nodded into his shoulder, Phil wasn’t sure if he wasn’t speaking because he was mad, or the kid would throw up if he tried.
And right , he still had to clean up the mess in the boy's carpet… He’d do that later, once he was sure he wouldn’t lose a child.
As Philza had finished getting the last of the disgusting vomit out of the beige carpet, he turned to who youngest who was groaning on the bed, likely out of discomfort.
Phil quickly put the newly emptied bin right next to the boy's bed.
“I’m only putting this here for emergencies, yeah ? I know you feel sick as Hell. But the milk’s not going to have much of an effect if you throw it up. So I know this sounds gross, but try your hardest… Not to puke? Especially since you drank literal poison… All I’m saying is… It’s gonna hurt.”
Phil wondered how his son felt the first time, throwing up burning liquids. To be fair, he expected a lot more blood. But hey, he was extremely thankful that he wasn’t.
Tommy nodded at him, not liking what his Dad had said.
“I sent Tech’ and Will down to the stables to get some fresh milk, yeah? Sorry again for making you drink the old one. It should still work.” Oh trust him, he knew what he was talking about.
“So… I won’t die?” The kid spoke out hoarsley, his voice sounding croaky from all the crying (and other stuff) that he had been doing.
Phil didn’t know the answer to this question.
Harming Two was meant to always work instantly , hence why it was so powerful and always strong.
Though, nobody sane would knowingly drink those potions.
They were meant to be splashed onto people, it literally burned through their skin.
Phil hoped that the equally dangerous poison had stopped the burning effects because he did not want to picture his son going through that.
He wasn’t one to promise false hope… But in this situation…
“Yeah, Mate… You’ll be fine.” The man soothed, sliding on top of the bed where his child was, moving over to softly ruffle his hands through the boy's locks. The kid leaned into it, apparently really liking it.
So what reason did he have to stop?
Aside from going to check on Wilbur and Techno.
Though, the man did have one question.
But with his twin boys opening the door, he didn’t have time to ask it.
“I’ll be right back, try not to die when I’m gone.” He joked. And as he left, he wondered if maybe that wasn’t the best choice of words.
When Phil said he wanted milk, he did not mean for Wilbur and Techno to bring two whole cartons... But he wasn’t complaining, though he knew Tommy would be.
“How is he…?” Techno spoke up first, clearly concerned for his little brother.
“I’m not too sure, Mate. I feel bad about the milk thing, but with how he was starting to act… If we had spent fifteen minutes there and back… It might’ve been a lot worse.”
The boys sat in silence, probably wondering.
“Why did he drink the potions, anyway?”
Phil gave them a weird look.
“You boys were playing Wizards and Magic, yeah?” The teens nodded.
“Wizards make magic potions and…”
Wilbur looked horrified. “I thought he’d made one of those stupid bathroom potions! And that he… Drank it or something?!” Wilbur did not think that the kid would’ve drank an actual potion.
Phil sighed.
“Well… What’s done is done, and oh. I’m still going to punish him, but I’ll wait until after there's no chance of him getting worse.” His kids nodded, seeming to agree.
Though they didn’t like the idea of punishing their brother any more than he’d already punished himself.
Techno and Wilbur cautiously knocked on their little brother's door.
For a good 10 seconds, there was pure, unbroken silence.
They of course, feared the worst. The twins quickly rushing in
Safe to say they were extremely relieved that Tommy was not dead, but they did feel a little guilty. As the kid was sleeping. Was.
“Wha…?” The kid mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his fist.
Techno and Wilbur instantly went over to wrap their brother in a soft and comfortable hug. Their brother returned it, of course. Although it was a lot weaker than usual.
“Heh, weird that we’re the ones hugging you first for a change.” They should probably do that more often, and not just let their brother come to them.
Though the kid found it a little funny, laughing along with Techno’s words.
“How are you feeling?” Wilbur asked, curious and still very worried.
His little brother just shrugged, not really knowing.
He didn’t feel like he was drinking lava anymore… More like when he burned his hand with the hot water. But in his throat.
“Not… Good.” He decided on saying, it was the most accurate thing he was feeling right now.
“Yeah, I bet. You drank a literal deadly potion.” Techno piped up.
Wilbur turned to glare at his twin. “Yeah, but… Why did you make a real one and not… You know, a fake like every other time?”
Tommy shifted, suddenly feeling guilty all over again.
“I tried to make a strength potion to beat you both…” He mumbled looking away, the same way he looked away from Phil.
“You picked the two deadliest colors, Theseus.”
“You told me that green meant kindness. And Red normally means love and strength… So I mixed them to be extra strong!”
As adorable as that was, he still almost died.
“Next time you try to do any magic stuff like that… Maybe don’t?” Wilbur supplied gently, trying his hardest not to make it sound mean. He just didn't want his brother to do anything like that again.
Tommy nodded, he would probably ask someone next time, especially if he was unsure... He did not want to feel this again, though he was pretty sure he’d already made that clear.
The kid was still shivering, though he felt more uncomfortable than anything.
“You cold?” Techno asked, feeling a little stupid for asking as he could visually see his brother's teeth chattering while sitting on the warm fluffy bed.
Once again, the kid shrugged. He didn’t know what he was feeling.
They were originally planning on wrapping him into a comfy blanket, but judging by the way Tommy began to quickly decide on getting out of his bed and leaving the room, they assumed he felt… Sick
No shit, but the instant coughing from outside the door had proved their point.
It wasn’t a sick cough, no. It was more like the coughing you do before you’re about to puke literally everything up.
Though, his older brothers were still confused as to why he didn’t use the empty bin that was sitting right next to his bed.
Maybe he was embarrassed or didn’t want to make a mess. Both, probably.
“Should we uh… Go check on him?” Techno questioned, unsure of what to do in this situation. He, himself… Would probably want to be comforted, but also not want to be seen throwing up.
Not that he did that a lot, but this was just from his point of view.
Wilbur shrugged, deciding on waiting it out.
Luckily, Phil had made up his mind. And that was going up the stairs.
And While Phil was halfway up the staircase, they all heard a loud crash coming from the bathroom.
Techno and Wilbur turned to look at each other, that look of fear and nervousness in their eyes.
They could hear Phil shouting from the hall.
“YOU GOOD, MATE?”
It once again took Tommy a few seconds to respond. Finally yelling out a croaky, tired. “Yeah-! ...”
He was definitely not good, he was anything but good.
Techno and Wilbur, again thought that the best thing to do in this situation was waiting for Tommy and Phil to come out of the bathroom. He knew their brother probably didn’t want to be crowded around while he was being sick.
Hell, the kid didn’t even like people knowing he was unwell in the first place.
This is the same kid who secretly pushed through the flu for two days because ‘he was embarrassed’.
Yeah, they found that out while at a theme park.
More specifically on one of the rides, not the most fun time.
After about four minutes, the two of them emerged. Phil was holding one of those miniature waste bins. The twins stepped back to give them space, also because they kind of liked their shoes being vomit-free.
Wait, they weren’t wearing shoes.
They wanted their socks not to be soaked with puke.
Judging by the way Phil shut the door as he went into Tommy’s room, his brother probably didn’t want them to see him right now, it was understandable.
Maybe they made him feel a little too bad about the potion thing? They get it was an accident. But maybe… The way they came off about it seemed… Like they were mad at him?
They shared an overprotective big-brother glance.
One of them seemed to get a good idea.
“Hey Wilbur, come to my room, yeah?”
Meanwhile, in Tommy’s bedroom, the kid felt absolutely miserable. Phil was with him, so he didn’t feel as bad as he was feeling he was.
He just wanted this feeling to go away.
Phil suggested having some more milk to try and cure some of the symptoms, which Tommy promptly puked at. Getting some use out of the freshly cleaned bin.
“Ah, sorry. Sorry. Wrong thing to say-” The man apologized, feeling guilty for even mentioning it.
He really didn’t know what to do to soothe his son.
He could… Always try a potion to battle out the effects of the damaging ones? He’d done it before. But Tommy was small , not just height wise. But in age.
9-year-olds shouldn’t drink potions.
Hell, he’d already risked it when the kid was 6. So for him to drink any two potions was bad, even if they were good.
He didn’t know what would happen if his kid had a third.
But as he watched Tommy bend over the bin in agony, spitting up whatever the fuck was left in his stomach. Phil decided.
The kid was already at his worst, what else could happen?
In hindsight, he should’ve probably told Techno and Wilbur his plan.
And not let them freak out when they saw Tommy drinking from one of the bottles.
The plan that Techno had was for them to continue their game, in the sweet comfort of their brother's bedroom.
Instead, they had entered their brother's room to see him doing… That .
If Phil hadn’t noticed in time, the twins would’ve likely smashed the potion to the ground.
And boy, healing potions were hard to make. So he’s glad that the kids had some restraining.
“It’s alright, It’s okay. I told him he could have it, It’s a healing potion. Don’t worry.”
Techno and Wilbur dramatically fell to the ground at that.
“Oh thank fuck , Phil! You can’t traumatize us like that.” Wilbur huffed out.
Techno stuck his thumb up letting him know that he agreed with his annoying twin brother.
“So this’ll help him?” Wilbur propped his chin up with his arms, still not sitting up fully, more keen on just laying on the comfy carpeted floor.
“Well uh...”
Techno looked up.
“It could go either way, really. But uhm… There isn’t much worse that could happen.” Tommy gave him a weird look as if to say. You didn’t tell me that.
Though, to be fair… It did taste soothing, so he continued.
“Well, I’m gonna go and check if we have any ice lollies. Right.” The man turned to Tommy, who was finishing the potion (with a straw that Phil had given him.) “That reminds me, only cold foods and liquidy foods.”
This time he was careful to choose his words.
“Nothing hot or hard to swallow. So I’m pretty sure you’re only gonna be eating ice cream and soup for the next… Week?”
Techno turned to him. “Aw, man. Now I’m tempted to drink some potions. I want ice cream.” The teen had joked.
“Don’t” Phil and Tommy both said spontaneously.
TechnoBlade put up his arms in surrender. “Kidding, kidding.”
Phil was absolutely correct.
For the rest of the day, the only thing that kid would be eating was nice cold beverages. And cool liquid foods, the man really didn’t want to risk anything hot burning his boy's throat. So this was the best option.
At least his boy seemed to be drinking it a little less cautiously now, which was good. Since the kid was normally too afraid to even drink water when he was sick like this.
At least that was a step up from before.
Now, Phil may be doing something other parents would like to refer to as, ‘being a helicopter parent’. But he was worried, okay?
Could you really blame him?
Really?
Hours were spent with Phil caring for Tommy, some of the side effects from literally everything that happened… The effects weren’t pleasant.
A pretty bad fever was one of them, but they thought they did a pretty good job of getting it handled. They managed to break it after only a short while, likely with some help from the healing potion.
It had made the kid pretty grouchy, understandably.
But Philza was sure to try and cheer up his kid's mood. Getting him to eat a lot of nice cold things.
Tommy would have to say the ice popsicles were his favorite. 10/10
Phil was there for everything, be it a rough coughing fit from the burning in his son's throat, or just sitting there to soothe him and rub his back after the kid threw up what little he had eaten.
But with Tommy finally asleep, Phil knew that he would be just fine.
He softly kissed his son's warm forehead as he left.
As the next day followed, the twins decided that spending their time with their baby brother would be the absolute best thing that they could do.
Tommy didn’t feel well enough to go running around and playing yet. So Techno and Wilbur had gone back to continue their original plan.
They brought the game to him.
The rest of the day was filled with the small bedroom being turned into a full-on battle zone! Tommy fought them from the comfortable place on top of his bed.
All while Techno and Wilbur battled each other.
Phil entered the room with three glass potion bottles, the insides all having something light pink inside of them.
“This time, I made safe potions for you boys to use! Go ahead and give them a try!” The man persuaded.
As Wilbur, Techno and Tommy opened up the glass… They all took a swig.
Phil had filled the potion bottles with apple and black currant fruit shoots.
…
The drinks were delicious, and really got the three of them back into the fighting mood.
The three of them had played for hours, wars after wars… Battles after battles… Tommy’s bed was his castle, and he was going to protect it.
Attacking his older brothers with whatever weapons that the young wizard was able to find. He even managed to knock them over a few times!
The game had stopped when Tommy started trying to catch his breath.
And at the end of the game...
Tommy ended up being victorious.