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Wilbur rummaged through the kitchen cabinets, stubby tail flicking back and forth behind him as he went. The edges of his shirt rippled in some imaginary breeze as he walked.
Phil looked over as he grabbed a couple buns from where the bread was being kept and stepped out of the kitchen. He yawned and rubbed his face in the crook of his elbow. The phantom hybrid stepped around a patch of sunlight on the floor and flopped down on one of the couches in the middle of the living room.
“Everything hurts,” he groaned, sinking deeper into the cushions, wincing as his back pressed against the couch. He threw his feet up over the armrest.
“Are you sore from yesterday?” Phil asked, raising one eyebrow. Wilbur groaned again, the edge of his voice lilting with a slight hiss, “you were out pretty much the entire day.”
“I don’t know but it hurts,” he bit down on one of the buns, “My back is killing me.”
“You probably pulled a muscle or something,” Phil patted his head as he walked by towards the front door. He grabbed his bag from where it was thrown unceremoniously on the bench near the door the last time he had come home with it, “I’m going out to get some more food, be back in an hour or so, message me if you need something.”
“Okay, fly safe,” Wilbur gave Phil a thumbs up and Phil nodded.
“Thanks, will do,” Phil gave another quick nod, stepping outside and letting himself drop from the edge of the island. Wilbur turned as he flew away, shifting and trying to get comfortable on the couch, munching on the buns that he had grabbed.
The pub was dreadfully silent aside from the faint popping of lava from Jack's room and the sloshing of water from Niki’s tank. Wilbur had no idea where anyone was and at the moment he would’ve rather dealt with the silence than have to put up with whatever they were getting up to.
He figured that in a few minutes when Tommy noticed that Phil had left, the avian would hurry up to the pub and try to find Wilbur to bother him.
Deciding he might as well tempt fate, Wilbur finished off his small snack and sank into the floorboards, flexing his fingers and practically swimming through the solid wood and stone, everything clouding in a slight muddled haze as he managed to—somehow—safely get down from the pub. He realized as soon as he was down on the ground, underneath the shade of the pub that he should’ve brought his cloak.
The sun was shining brightly with no clouds in sight. He could see Ranboo down by the lake talking with Niki, the Enderian backing up a couple steps every time Niki got closer and Wilbur understood the feeling.
Wilbur went invisible, blinking to steady the disorienting feeling, and set out. The feeling of wind blowing through him or the sun barely even hitting against his skin was something that he had gotten used to a long time ago. But it didn’t make it any more pleasant than it was.
At least one good thing he discovered was that the throbbing pain in his back had lessened when he was invisible. He could move his shoulders easier and pain wouldn’t flare up his back.
“Ranboo!” Wilbur called, getting amusement about the way that Ranboo spun around, his tail whipping back and forth as he tried to figure out where Wilbur was.
“Hi… Wilbur?” Ranboo responded, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Niki giggled from where she was laying on the shore of the lake, her gills underwater, and waved in the vague direction that she heard Wilbur’s voice.
“What’re you two talking about?” Wilbur leaned forward blinking away the faint distortion of his vision. God, he hated having to be invisible for long periods of time. It always made everything seem like it was half underwater, and like Wilbur wasn’t really there. It was an uncomfortable feeling, the sound was muffled and his vision would swim and blur occasionally.
“Oh nothing much,” Ranboo rubbed at the back of his neck, he looked down at the floor, “Niki was telling me things about living underwater. You know.”
“Sounds fun,” Wilbur scanned the area, looking for any bit of shade nearby so he didn’t have to sit in an awkward conversation where no one knew where he was.
Wilbur looked over at Ranboo, accidentally making eye contact as Ranboo looked up from where he was staring at the floor. The Enderian’s eyes widened and he stared directly at Wilbur, goosebumps prickling at his skin.
“I can still feel that you know, when you’re invisible,” he said, licking his lips and slightly baring his teeth.
“Right, sorry,” Wilbur pulled his gaze away and Ranboo noticeably slumped, “anyway have either of you seen Tommy?”
Niki chuckled, sitting up in the water, her hair plastered to her back, “I see him right now.” she pointed to where Tommy was climbing up to the pub, his wings flapping behind him. She giggled again, covering her mouth with one hand.
Wilbur glanced up, “ah.”
Even from down at the lake, Wilbur could hear Tommy swearing as his talons got caught on the ladder rungs. He chuckled at that.
“I suppose I’m not going back up to the Pub anytime soon,” Wilbur said with a shrug, flexing his fingers to keep the feeling in his arms.
“You can’t keep avoiding him,” Niki laughed, “I saw Phil fly off earlier, do you know where he’s going?”
“He said he was going to go get more food, but who knows with Phil if he’ll actually remember to get it or get distracted on the way,” Wilbur chuckled and scuffed his foot against the ground, frowning at the feeling as it dipped through the ground, “I should go get somewhere shaded. Nice chat.”
“Bye Wilbur,” Ranboo nodded at him, he smoothed back some of his hair. Niki waved and Wilbur waved back even though she couldn’t see him.
Slinking off, Wilbur wandered around seeing if there was anyone else he could bother. He stopped under a tree where the shade was thick enough that he wouldn’t get burned. Though the moment he went tangible again he barely stopped himself from crying out, biting down on his lip as pain flared up his back nearly causing his knees to give out.
He lurched forward, leaning over his knees. Had he gotten burnt yesterday? His back throbbed and his skin practically bubbled with heat. Wilbur flickered invisible again, sinking to sit on the ground. He panted, clutching at his pants.
The pain muted now that he was invisible, lessening to a dull throb. Wilbur buried his face in his hands, this was not a good situation.
Phil said he would be back in an hour or so, Wilbur could wait it out until then and then have Phil see if there was something wrong. If it didn't hurt as bad when he was invisible he would just have to suck it up until Phil got home.
Overwhelming numbness was better than pain after all.
Wilbur sucked in a deep breath, pushing himself up to his feet, his stomach already beginning to rumble with growing hunger. He forgot about the exhaustion that came with spending long periods of time invisible.
While he waited for Phil to return, hoping that he would stay true to what he had said for once, Wilbur shuffled back up to the pub. Nearly falling face-first through the door, forgetting that he didn’t need to push it open.
Tommy was pacing through the pub, taking blankets from the linen closet down the hall and arranging them in a nest on the floor. His wings fluttered as he did so, talons clicking against the floor as he walked.
He looked over in Wilbur’s direction for a second before turning back. Wilbur flopped down on the couch, pressing his face into the cushions. The lack of feeling from it gave Wilbur no comfort. Wilbur listened as Tommy walked around, knowing that he should probably make his presence known before Tommy did something that Wilbur wasn’t meant to see. But at the moment, he was tired and would’ve rather just lay on the couch, listening to the muffled sounds around him and trying to make sure that he stayed invisible.
“Are you being a creep again?” Tommy asked, half glancing at the couch that Wilbur was laying on, “spying me?”
“Hm?” Wilbur muttered.
“I know you’re there!” Tommy exclaimed, “you’re terrible at this.”
“I’m not trying to spy, I’m trying to rest,” Wilbur grumbled.
“Why are you invisible?” Tommy sat down in his newly constructed nest, he let out a chirp and sunk into the blankets.
“Because I’m in pain,” Wilbur explained briefly. He rubbed his face in the crook of his elbow and squinted.
“What?” Tommy furrowed his eyebrows, a flicker of concern in his expression before he quickly guarded it, “that doesn’t explain anything.”
“I am in pain, when I am invisible, I am not,” Wilbur said, “now be quiet.”
“You’re so lame,” Tommy scoffed, “you didn’t even work that hard yesterday.”
Wilbur just grumbled something unintelligible. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
Small chirps were coming from the nest and Wilbur figured that Tommy was probably taking a nap. That was the only explanation for him being as quiet as he was. Wilbur took a chance to peek over at Tommy but couldn’t see his face from how it was sitting so Wilbur had no idea.
Wilbur didn’t trust his body to be able to fall asleep. With his luck, he would go tangible when he fell asleep and be jerked back awake.
However long that Phil was gone for seemed to stretch for hours. It couldn’t have been that long but it sure felt like that as Wilbur was laying on the couch with nothing to do, floating in a half-sleep muddled haze.
Then, he heard the door open and close and shuffling in the room that caused Wilbur to look up.
Phil looked over at Tommy sitting in his nest and pulled his cloak off to hang it up by the door, “you sitting here all by yourself Toms?”
“No,” Tommy said, sinking deeper into the blankets, “Wilbur’s here too. He’s moping on the couch.”
Phil furrowed his eyebrows, turning to the couch where the only thing that was slightly off was the dip in the fabric. Wilbur shifted.
“My back hurts still,” Wilbur muttered, and Phil’s expression softened.
“Ah,” Phil nodded, setting his bag down on the counter and stepping over Tommy’s nest, “how bad?”
“I am invisible,” Wilbur said like that explained everything. Phil seemed to understand what he was talking about and nodded.
“Okay… I think I should take a look at it, you might’ve injured something,” Phil said slowly, “You gotta be tangible for me to do that.”
Wilbur just sighed heavily, letting out a small groan. He made himself visible, burying his face in the couch cushions as a weight seemed to settle on top of him, sending waves of agony down his spine. He let out a small whimper, clenching his jaw. Phil crooned sympathetically.
Tommy peeked up from where he was sitting, his eyebrows furrowed.
“I’m gonna pull your shirt up okay?”
Wilbur gave a weak thumbs up and hummed. He winced as Phil pulled his shirt up as far as he could, the fabric brushed against his skin and Wilbur’s tail lashed back and forth.
Phil sucked in a sharp breath, “are you sure nothing happened yesterday when you were chopping down trees and stuff?”
“No? I was…” Wilbur hissed, “I was fine yesterday.”
“It looks like a rash, like a sunburn,” Phil was hesitant to put his hand on Wilbur’s back, all the way down from his shoulders to his mid-back were dark red rash-like marks. Small abnormal lumps were protruding from his shoulder blades which could’ve led Phil to believe that Wilbur had broken something. But he seemed to have been fine yesterday like Wilbur said.
Tommy scooted out of his nest, peering over Phil’s shoulder to get a better look.
“Ouch, I got a rash like that when I got my wings,” Tommy commented offhandedly, “maybe you got caught by some poison ivy or something you're allergic to.”
“It does kind of look like a sunburn,” Phil said, “you wore your cloak yesterday though, right?”
“Yeah, and it would’ve hurt right away if it was from the sun,” Wilbur groaned miserably, hissing as Phil gently poked at the lumps on his shoulders. They were hard which meant it probably wasn’t a blister or something of the sort.
“I can try and put some cream on it and see if that would help,” Phil said, patting Wilbur on the head, “but besides that, I really don’t know what I could do. I don’t know what this is.”
“Ugh,” Wilbur shifted, pushing himself up on his elbows, “this sucks.”
As he moved he flickered invisible for a second before his form returned. He wrinkled up his nose, grimacing. His cheeks were flushed and his slightly translucent skin seemed even paler than normal. If that was somehow possible.
Phil pressed the back of his hand to Wilbur’s forehead, clicking his tongue, “you might have a small fever as well.”
Wilbur pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes, “everything hurts.”
“I know, I wish there was something that I could do,” Phil brushed some of Wilbur’s bangs out of his face and stood up, “we’ll see if the cream will help, if not we might have to just see how this will go. I can try going to the nether to try and make some potions too if it doesn’t get better.”
“Okay…”
Phil stepped into the kitchen to get one of the many salves that they had stocked. Wilbur bit down hard on his bottom lip as Phil spread it as gently as possible across his back. He hissed through his teeth as Phil agitated the skin and rubbed against it. Phil didn’t say anything, only crooned and chirped softly to try and reassure Wilbur.
He layered bandages over his back as well and pulled Wilbur’s shirt back down where it was resting before. Wilbur just sighed heavily and flopped down against the couch, sitting as still as possible. Everything ached but if he sat still enough it was okay. This was a better alternative than laying down while invisible.
Later that day, Wilbur had gotten a bit of sleep after Phil had bandaged up his back. Though he woke up to the sound of Phil walking around the kitchen, Tommy had abandoned his nest on the ground and was nowhere in Wilbur’s line of sight. So that meant that the Avian was no longer in the pub, clearly. Wilbur hissed, letting out a sharp breath as another stab of pain throbbed against his shoulder. Tears prickled in the corners of his eyes as he whimpered.
“You okay?” Phil asked from the kitchen. Wilbur didn’t respond, he pushed himself up to a half-sitting position, wrapping his arms around his torso. Blinding pain radiating against his back like the sun had decided to ignore all laws of matter and physics to shine right down on him in the middle of the living room. He ducked his head and let out a distressed croon.
When Phil heard no response, he put down what he was cooking, making sure that it wouldn’t burn or spoil while he was gone, and stepped into the living room. Wilbur was sitting up, staring down at his lap with his face contorted with pain. He had his arms wrapped tightly around himself and his tail was flicking back and forth.
“Hey, Wil,” Phil knelt down by the couch, putting his hand on Wilbur’s arm. His skin was burning and he was shaking like a leaf. Phil chirped softly, brushing back Wilbur’s hair.
“Hurts…” Wilbur grit out, tears dripping down his face onto his lap. Phil furrowed his eyebrows, worry causing his heart to leap up to his throat. Wilbur wasn’t usually one to cry from pain, that must’ve meant it was bad.
“It’s okay, you’ll be okay,” Phil said, rubbing circles on his arm. Wilbur gripped at his shirt, his knuckles paling as he gripped tighter. He cried out again, ducking his head.
Phil had no idea what he could do besides wait it out with Wilbur, he let Wilbur grip his hand. Wilbur’s claws nearly draw blood from Phil’s hand.
“Hey, do you think I can check the bandages?” Phil asked, he hoped that the tremor in his voice wasn’t audible. Wilbur shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. He flickered invisible and his hand went through Phil’s.
Something pushed against the underside of Wilbur’s skin. Agony flaring up his shoulder blades. His heart was pounding wildly and he could barely hear Phil from where the elytrian was whispering reassurances. His back throbbed, he didn’t even have the opportunity to be disgusted by what was happening, the shifting of something just underneath the surface of his skin and the involuntary flickers invisible.
He felt something rip and then the blinding pain. He knows the pain of the sun, the feeling of the warmth blooming against his skin before exploding into blisters and rashes that boiled against his sensitive skin.
It was almost the same sensation, the heat, and the rash but without the familiar sensation of burns dotting across his skin. This was something shifting, bones seeming to dislocate and shift back into place. He clutched at his arm, his claws piercing against his skin that was practically numb at this point. He whimpered and hissed his chest heaving.
The only thing he could feel was the violent sting and something moving behind him. Blood spilling down his back in steady waves.
He could barely even hear Phil swearing from next to him, his hand brushing against his shoulder, or the sound of his own sobs.
When Wilbur woke up next, everything was numb. After a moment of panic and trying to get past the incredibly stiff limbs, he realized that he had woken up invisible. Scared of what he would feel when he went visible again, he stayed like that. Trying to take stock of his surroundings.
Was everything just a dream? It seemed to be mid-afternoon, there wasn’t as much sun shining into the pub. It would usually be around the time that he woke up when he slept during the day. Wilbur blinked, there was a blanket draped across his lower body, he couldn’t feel the fabric.
Phil appeared to be sitting on the floor next to him. There was blood on his hands and he had a damp towel in his hands. He was looking at Wilbur with a tired, worried expression. Wilbur shifted, he rubbed his eyes.
“Wil?” Phil asked softly, he chirped.
“Mm,” Wilbur hummed weakly, he swallowed thickly.
“You with me?” Phil asked, he rested his hands in his lap and leaned back some. Wilbur just hummed again unintelligibly.
“You clocked out earlier uh…” Phil wiped his hands off on the towel, “well…”
“What happened?” Wilbur asked, he didn’t make any move to sit up, his limbs were heavy and there was exhaustion set in his soul.
“Well… if you go visible you can see for yourself… Tommy had the right comparison with the rash on your back,” Phil’s explanation didn’t help at all and Wilbur feared what would happen when he went visible. But after taking a moment to collect himself, he did so.
The pain had lessened significantly. It was a dull sting against his back and incredibly sore. But it was better than how it was earlier. There was a heavy weight against his back which was confusing and also alarming.
Phil took his arm gently, helping him sit up and keeping him balanced. When Wilbur shifted the weight against his back shifted as well, dragging and pulling as he did so. A sharp sting flared up his back and he hissed.
Blankets didn’t usually hurt.
Wilbur looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening as he could see wings protruding limply from his back. They hung at an odd angle and there was blood clinging to the skin.
“Oh christ…” Wilbur said, Phil just grimaced.
“Yeah…”
“I… what?” Wilbur shook his head, “no… no way… I’m way too old for things like this to be happening.”
“I didn’t even know Phantom hybrids could get wings,” Phil said honestly, he put his hand on Wilbur’s knee.
Wilbur looked back again, his wings were a light bluish color. They extended with white bones that spread in a rib-like pattern, similar to how bats' wings were. The edges of the skin had a ripped texture and were faded like they weren’t completely solid. The skin rippled and shifted as he stared at it.
“I…”
“Does it hurt?” Phil asked softly. Wilbur shook his head.
“It stings a little but… it doesn't hurt that bad.”
“That’s good I was uh cleaning up the blood a bit… there was a lot of blood,” Phil said, “you went invisible right before you woke up so uh…”
“Oh.”
Phil guided him to turn back around, the heel of his palm pressing against the wrist of his wing, helping Wilbur move. Wilbur’s wings twitched and he could slightly move to extend or fold them up but not enough to be able to shift that much on the couch.
Wilbur yawned, his eyes stung from crying and he rubbed his face. Phil was patting his wings with a damp towel, wiping the blood off and adjusting them to lay in a more comfortable position. Wilbur’s back was all tore up from what had happened and Phil had managed to bandage them as best he could.
While the weight tugging against his back was new, he couldn’t say it was much heavier than when he wore his cloak. Which was weird, Wilbur figured that with the size of his wings they would feel heavier than they are. He shivered and curled in on himself, one of his wings brushing against his arm.
The other, Phil was still patting lightly with the damp towel. Wilbur leaned forward against the back of the couch and gave a small hiss.
Neither of them said anything. Wilbur would’ve been content to go back to sleep right then but every time Phil brushed against his wings he was jerked back to being fully awake.
He could ask more questions when he wasn’t exhausted and weak but the moment that Phil had finished cleaning the blood off of his wings and back, Wilbur flopped back down on his stomach. Content to fall back asleep. Phil carded his fingers through his hair.