Chapter Text
Tango knew when he woke up that morning that something was wrong.
It was a gut instinct thing, which already alerted him that something was actually a problem. What Tango lacked in awareness he usually made up for in instinct - it was no wonder he’d sensed the Boogeyman in Last Life so often. When something felt off, it usually meant something was off.
But this time it was more than just gut instinct. When Tango woke up, he physically felt… weird. Maybe a little colder than usual, but also… not? It was strange. He checked himself in the mirror and he looked fine, so maybe he just had a restless night. Anyways, he couldn’t dwell on it since he was supposed to meet up with Skizz that day to help with a redstone project. He couldn’t leave his friend hanging just because he felt a little off.
Tango was typing in the coordinates to Skizz’s server when his communicator buzzed and a new notification popped up.
Xisumavoid: Just a heads up everyone, some kind of bug may have slipped onto the server. I’m actively searching for it now, so if anybody notices anything please let me know.
Xisumavoid: It wasn’t a big one or anything particularly dangerous, I don’t think.
Tango rolled his eyes, irritated - not at Xisuma, of course, but at the fickle nature of glitches. His knowledge of code wasn’t as widespread or seasoned as their admin, obviously, but he knew enough that glitches irritated the heck out of him. He didn’t understand how X could donate time out of every day to try and manage them.
Well, Tango hadn’t noticed anything odd, so he finished typing in Skizz’s coordinates. The swirling blue portal opened up in front of him and he stepped through without hesitation. For a moment he was weightless - as it was with all portals - and then grass appeared under his boots and the friendly voice of Skizz was filling his ears.
“Hi, TangoTop!” Skizz greeted, waving as he came over. Tango smiled back, “Heyyyy, Skizzleman! How’s it going?”
“Great, now that you’re here!”
And then they were off. They had steadily running banter as they worked, of course, since it was impossible not to have some sort of fun conversation with Skizz at any given moment, but this visit was primarily for business. Skizz needed Tango’s help coming up with ideas for a new, innovative iron farm, and then the two would build some ideas to draft them out. All fun stuff, all things that Tango normally loved to do.
But for whatever reason, his head wasn’t in the game that day. It wasn’t that hard at first, coming up with ideas to bounce off of Skizz, but at some point his brain started to fill with a weird fog. Getting up from the table where they were brainstorming sent twinges of odd, achy pain through his muscles.
And although Tango dealt with this daily, he was getting so cold. It didn’t make sense - he still had all his warm winter-proof clothes on, including his thick insulated cloak, and yet he was feeling his jaw start to twinge like his teeth wanted to chatter.
By the time Tango started to realize that maybe this feeling was an indicator of something serious, Skizz seemed to come to the same conclusion.
“Are you feeling okay, Top?” Skizz was looking at him strangely from across the table. They’d just sat down after taking inventory of his materials, and Tango had to fight not to sigh in relief when he sat down. His legs had started trembling on their way back.
“Hmm? Yeah, why?” It was a lie, but when Tango didn’t feel good he got irritable and he really didn’t want to hash it out with his friend right now. Besides, he’d come here to help Skizz, not bog him down with his own problems.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Because you’re putting off a lot of heat - I can feel it all the way over here.”
“What?” Tango looked at Skizz in confusion, subtly trying to tug his cloak tighter around himself. The cold was really starting to get bad; it felt like his bone marrow was slowly freezing over, leaving him hurting and suppressing shivers. What was going on? Was it some kind of virus? But that didn’t make sense - Tango was practically immune to all diseases since they got burnt off the minute they entered his system. Besides, Xisuma usually checked the code regularly to make sure nothing more than the average cold was lurking around on the server-
Oh. Xisuma had said something about a glitch, hadn’t he? Maybe that’s what this was - maybe the glitch had messed up Tango’s system so it hadn’t killed off a virus, and now it was making him sick-
“Tango.” Tango jerked in place, startled by how close Skizz had gotten, and he looked to the side to meet his friend’s serious, concerned eyes.
“W-what?” Tango stammered, scowling when he realized his teeth had started to chatter. He’d started shivering too (when had that happened!?) and his tail instinctively curled itself around one of his legs, the tip burning oddly against the fabric despite the tip not being alight with fire.
“I’ve said your name like three times. You’re sick, buddy.”
“C-can’t get sick.” Tango snapped, trying to ignore how miserable his voice was starting to sound. He didn’t feel like he had any kind of cold; he didn’t have a ton of experience, but his nose wasn’t stuffed and his throat didn’t hurt, he just felt… weird . Cold… and another sensation at the same time. He was freezing, and yet something in him wanted to take his cloak off. Was this heat? Was he feeling hot for the first time in his life?!
Heat wasn’t on Tango’s list of temperatures like it was for most other players. There was warmth, certainly, and various degrees, but all of them were pleasant. Then there was cold, various degrees, all of them unpleasant . Never heat to a degree where it becomes uncomfortable. It was why Tango could easily wear any manner of insulated clothing in the nether for extended periods of time.
“Tango? Tango you’ve gotta stop spacing out on me, man.” A hand on his shoulder jolted him out of his thoughts, and Tango couldn’t stop himself from letting out a pathetic whine as Skizz placed a frigid hand to Tango’s forehead. The other man could only hold it there for a few seconds before he jerked away, a hiss slipping out from between nervously clenched teeth.
“Okay, buddy.” Skizz’s voice was calm, which made Tango feel a little better because he was really starting to freak out internally. “It looks like you’ve got a fever. And I know you don’t get them normally,” he added, seeing Tango open his mouth, “but you have one now. It must be a glitch or something, or maybe a really nasty virus.”
“Xisuma s-said something ‘bout a g-glitch.” Tango forced out, huddling deeper in his cloak. He protested weakly when Skizz slipped an arm under his shoulder and around his back, helping him to his feet. His muscles ached and trembled as he stumbled along, the man leading him away from the table.
“I’ll call him once I get you laid down and cooling off.” Skizz said, tone even but with an underlayer of… something. “Your water allergy makes it a little tricky but we’ll work something out.”
“D-don’t need to get c-cooled off.” Tango protested as Skizz led him to a bedroom - probably his. “ ‘m t-too cold.”
“No you’re not, buddy.” Skizz said gently, kindly but firmly resisting Tango’s attempt to bat him away as he started removing his cloak. “That’s not how a fever works. Your body heats up so the rest of the world feels cold. You know what that’s like, homey, it’s just a worse version of how you usually operate.”
“Th-that sucks .” Tango spat, hating the cold, hating life, hating pretty much everything as Skizz took away his cloak, boots, and sweater. The minute the cold air hit Tango’s arms - since he was just wearing a short-sleeved undershirt under the sweater - he was shivering harder than ever and his teeth were chattering loud enough to be audible.
“I’m sorry.” Skizz said apologetically. “We’ll leave it at that unless it gets worse, okay? Just lay down on the bed and try to rest.”
“I c-can’t rest when I’m sh- shaking like this.” Tango snapped weakly. “C-come on, man-”
“I’m serious Top, if you’re sick then we can’t just let you live with a fever.” Skizz rubbed a hand over his shaking arm and despite the ache in his sensitive skin, Tango found himself leaning into the touch because Skizz’s hand was warm . “Lay down, alright? I’ll stay right here while I call Xisuma.”
‘Kay.” Tango whispered, unable to do much else. His energy was rapidly fading, sucked away by the cold, and still he was forced to shiver uncontrollably. He tried to focus on the soothing sensations of Skizz’s hand on his arm, but it was like the cold was consuming his thoughts. He couldn’t think of anything else.
At least Xisuma would be here soon. Then he could sort this whole thing out.
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Skizz was worried. No, beyond that, he was really worried.
He had no idea how something had caused Tango to get a fever; it must have been a glitch, that was the only explanation. Tango’s entire state of being was to essentially have a low-grade fever at all times without being adversely affected, so to see him have on with the classic symptoms - the flushed cheeks, the chills, the mental fog - was beyond alarming. What made it even worse was that Skizz only had a few ways to cool him down, since getting him to drink water or putting wet washcloths on him was out of the question.
He needed Xisuma to get over here now and figure out what was wrong with his friend.
The admin had given Skizz his contact information ever since HC-8 when the Boatem crew, and then Bdubs, had come to stay at his place. It seemed prudent after that, especially since Skizz wanted to be able to alert the admin if anything ever happened with the other members of ZITS.
This right here was a great example. Skizz was really glad for Xisuma’s info, now.
He went with a voice call, since he really just needed Xisuma to know the situation ASAP. Luckily, the admin picked up pretty quickly.
“Hey, Skizz. Sorry to be abrupt but can we make this quick? We had a glitch on the server earlier and the nether is going crazy.” Xisuma sounded like he was fed-up with life but was forcing politeness. Skizz felt bad for a split second, but then his heart dropped . “The nether is being weird?”
“The temperature skyrocketed but then the rest of the atmosphere started losing integrity. We had to evacuate everybody before they burned to death, but some of the hermits said the netherrack was starting to burn up and that the mobs were dying. Nether mobs dying from heat, can you believe it?”
Skizz swallowed hard, glancing down at Tango, who was still shivering and looking utterly miserable on the bed. Even on his arm, the netherborn’s skin was hot enough that it was starting to feel uncomfortable for Skizz to touch.
He took a deep breath, needing to convey the urgency of the situation to Xisuma but not wanting Tango to overhear and grow worried.
“X, can you do me a favor and start working on that glitch as quickly as possible? And maybe come visit me while you’re at it?”
“Is everything okay?”
“Um,” Skizz exhaled. “Tango visited me today, and he’s not doing so good. Pretty sure he has a fever.”
There was a pause on the other end of the call. When Xisuma spoke, his voice contained nothing but dread. “Tango, the resident netherborn, has a fever?”
“Yes. Full-body chills and everything. And because I can’t use water to cool him down I think he’s only getting worse.”
“Okay. Okay.” Xisuma sounded like he was trying to reassure himself as well as Skizz. “I’ll keep working on my end. I’ll let Impulse and Zed know where Tango’s at, if that’s okay with you. Otherwise I think I’m going to send Cubfan over. Have you met him before?”
“Maybe briefly.” Skizz thought about it. Tango shuddered against him and he shushed the blazeborn gently, threading his aching fingers through his friend’s hot, brightly glowing hair. He wasn’t going to be able to touch him much longer if this kept up. “Lab coat, dark hair?”
“That’s him.” Xisuma confirmed. “I won’t say much, but he’s got a background that’s given him good knowledge of healing and also some ice-influenced magic. Maybe he can help keep Tango cool without water.”
“That would be great.” Skizz said, relieved.
“Let me know if you need anything else. I’m gonna recruit some people and we’ll get the glitch fixed up as quick as we can.”
“Thanks, Xisuma. I’ll be ready for Cubfan to pop over. You have my coordinates, right?”
“Yep.” Xisuma confirmed. Skizz had given them to the admin in the aftermath of HC-8. “Take care.”
“Bye.”
The admin hung up, and Skizz turned back to Tango. The netherborn didn’t look any better, and it was only made more confusing by the icy glamour he was still wearing. Even though Skizz felt like was sitting uncomfortably close to a furnace or bonfire, Tango’s hair still had icicles hanging from it and his skin was unnaturally pale, lips tinted blue. Although now a purple flush had spread to his cheeks, burning in an otherwise ghostly face.
“Did you hear that, Top?” Skizz asked softly. He bit back a hiss of pain when he felt his fingers start to blister in Tango’s hair, and he pulled back his throbbing hand reluctantly. “Xisuma’s working on it. He’s sending your friend Cubfan over to get you cooled off.”
“Okay.” Tango croaked out. He looked exhausted yet weirdly awake at the same time, his eyelids at half mast but his irises burning a brilliant, vibrant blue that cast a soft glow on his cheeks and nose. His hair mirrored the glow, shining light on Skizz’s dark comforter. Skizz swallowed down the wave of panic that threatened to rise up in his chest. He never saw Tango sick like this. Even Tango’s infamous winter cough was brought on by temperature change rather than any kind of illness.
Although, if what Xisuma said was true, then this probably wasn’t being caused by an illness either. Skizz didn’t know what the nether having a meltdown meant for Tango, but clearly it wasn’t anything good.
Skizz felt the telltale buzz of his communicator signaling a new person on the server. He stood, eating a piece of bread to help restore his injured fingers. “I’ll be right back, Tango. Just gonna grab your fellow hermit and lead him back over here, okay?”
At Tango’s weary nod, Skizz turned and hurried out of the room. He only hoped that this new hermit could help the blazeborn until Xisuma could get things back under control.