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Health potions are a tricky thing.
On the surface, they seem like the perfect answer to any of life’s injuries. Skeleton arrow to the chest, zombie bite, lava burns—all of these can be fixed in minutes by pouring some bright red, shimmering liquid on top of the wound.
Except this is only a surface-level view of healing potions. The reality is a lot more complicated.
Phil learned this the hard way. While his wings bore the brunt of L’manberg’s fiery death, other parts of his body were burnt as well. There had been burns on his back, his right shoulder spreading down his arm, and even the heels of his feet. In the chaos that followed the explosion, there’d been no time to sit down and dress his wounds with bandages soaked in regen potion. So he went the quick and dirty route instead, dumping a healing potion over the burns and hoping for the best. Which was how he ended up in his current predicament.
It’s a quiet day in the tundra. Techno had gone out that morning in hopes of finding a Woodland Mansion to raid. Phil elected to stay home, wanting to take the day to repair some of his armor and freshen up his enchantments.
After finishing his repairs, Phil tried on his armor while still inside the cabin to see if he needed to make any further adjustments. He’d walked around the room a few times, boots thudding against the wood floor while the armor hung heavily off his shoulders. The cabin was heated by a fire roaring in the fireplace, and Phil had kept his winter haori on underneath the armor. It was hot, yes, but it was only for a few minutes.
The burning creeps in as Phil is taking his boots off. The backs of his heels sting as he sets the boots to the side, the skin feeling as though it’s wrapped too tightly around his bones. Peeling off one sock, he presses a hand to the heel and feels heat radiating off the quickly reddening skin.
“Shit,” he mutters.
Fire underneath the skin. That’s how Phil describes it to others. Healing potions and their effects is an art, not a science, so he and Techno don’t have an exact explanation for how this happened. Their best guess is that forcing the burns to heal so quickly fucked up the veins underneath, making it so his blood flow goes wonky every once in a while.
Sometimes these episodes can be triggered by different kinds of heat exposure, like bathing in hot water, or walking around a warm cabin in a full suit of armor. But other times it’s completely random, with Phil unable to do anything except grit his teeth and bear it.
Most episodes are tolerable. Uncomfortable, but something he can withstand.
Today’s episode is not tolerable.
It’s right around the time that Phil’s arm begins to heat up alongside his heels that he realizes it’s going to be a bad one. He winces as he pushes to his feet and makes his way over to the couch, every step making his skin sting. Throwing his legs over the back of the couch, Phil leans as far back as he can without all the blood rushing to his head. He tries to lift his arm as well but it’s significantly more difficult given his position, so he decides he can deal with the arm pain for now in favor of keeping his feet elevated. Then, he waits.
And waits.
And waits.
Instead of improving, the burning only seems to get worse. Phil tries to distract himself by leafing through a book Techno had left on the coffee table but he keeps shifting around, struggling to get comfortable while feeling like three of his extremities are being pressed against a magma block.
Tossing the book aside, he groans into the air. He spares a glance and sees that his heels are an angry, scarlet red, while the side of his arm is following suit. He twists around to climb off the couch, hissing when his feet touch the floor again. Phil imagines this must be what it feels like to walk barefoot in the Nether as he struggles not to limp to the door.
The logical part of Phil’s mind knows it's a bad idea to walk barefoot into a snow drift. However, that logical part of his mind is being overridden by the part cursing his own body out for doing this to him. All he can bring himself to care about is the fact that it feels like there’s fire licking at his heels, and the snow that will extinguish it is only a few steps away.
Phil doesn’t even register the icy air as he steps outside the cabin. His breath turns to small clouds in front of him as he hurries down the steps. And then, just like that, the fire goes out as his feet are plunged into the soft, white powder.
“Thank fuck,” Phil mutters, his eyes slipping shut. Although his arm isn’t in the snow, the pain is more mild, so the cool air against his bare skin alone is enough to help. His toes quickly go numb but he can’t bring himself to care. All he can focus on is how nice the relief feels.
Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Phil knows he needs to get back inside soon if he wants to keep all of his toes. But he also knows that as soon as he steps out of the snow, that stretched-too-tight feeling is going to return to his skin. The snow is only a temporary solution. Ths episode won’t end until his body decides it's over.
So Phil tries to drag it out for as long as he can. Keeping his eyes shut, he counts the seconds in his head, arguing with himself that it’ll be fine if he waits just a little bit longer.
Then,
“Bruh, I thought we talked about this. You can’t go giving yourself frostbite when I’m not home.”
Phil sighs as he opens his eyes. “I’m not going to get frostbite. I’ve been counting how long I’ve been out here.”
Techno looks remarkably unharried for the amount of traveling Phil knows he’s done today. His braid is a bit of a mess and there’s some dirt staining his clothes, but that’s the extent of it. Phil doesn’t see any blood from illagers on him, or any rips in his cloak showing that he’d been in a fight.
But there’s an undeniable glint of exhaustion behind his glasses as he looks Phil up and down, eyeing his bare arms and the snow piled up over his feet.
“Phil, you know I don’t do well under pressure so I really don’t think I’d be good at performing an amputation if it came down to it.”
“Fine,” Phil groans. He tries to climb out of the snow pile, but his feet are more numbed than he realizes. When his weight shifts, he stumbles, but before he can fall-
“Nope, not breakin’ a hip today,” Techno says as he hoists Phil into his arms.
Phil rolls his eyes but doesn’t bother trying to get out of Techno’s hold. “Mate, I wasn’t gonna break a hip.”
“You could’ve. Then it’d be all over for you. You’d never recover and then I’d have to stick you in a nursing home,” Techno teases as he climbs up the stairs to the cabin. “Can you imagine how awkward that’d be to explain to the others? Niki and Ranboo would be like, ‘hey where’s Phil at’ and I’d have to say, ‘well he stood barefoot in the snow and broke his hip when he tried to go back inside so now he lives in Sunny Sides Retirement Community.’ Do you think I wanna tell them that?”
“I can’t afford to live in a nursing home,” Phil deadpans as Techno opens the door to the cabin with one arm.
He ducks under the doorway to bring them inside. Phil’s feet are already regaining feeling and he knows it won’t be long before the burning comes back.
“What, the Goddess of Death PPO plan doesn’t cover it?” Techno shoots back as he kicks the door shut behind them.
Phil chuckles. “Unfortunately being a Goddess’ favorite doesn’t come with healthcare benefits.”
“Lameeee. You really ought to unionize.”
Still carrying Phil, Techno walks through the living room before setting him on his feet in front of a ladder. This time, Phil doesn’t stumble.
“Climb up and get under the blankets, I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Techno tells him.
“I don’t have frostbite-”
Techno walks away before Phil can finish. “I’m not listening to the guy who stands barefoot in the snow!”
Phil rolls his eyes again as he starts to climb up the ladder. He’s able to get to the second floor without issue, but he can feel his skin growing hot again. Still, he forces himself under the blankets like Techno told him, knowing he needs to warm the parts of himself up that aren’t turning bright red from his fucked up blood flow.
He only ends up being able to stand it for a few minutes, but it’s enough to get the rest of the feeling back into his limbs. The moment he chooses to toss the blankets aside is when Techno climbs up the ladder, balancing a small basket in his arms.
“Here,” Techno says as he sets the basket down next to Phil on the bed, “I soaked these in the snow so they should be pretty cold, at least for the next few minutes.”
The basket is full of damp rags. Phil takes one out and brushes the last snowflakes off before draping it over the burn scars on his arm. He lets out a breath of relief before quickly reaching for the other rags to wrap around his heels.
“Thanks, mate,” Phil mutters as he slumps back against the pillows.
“No problem.” Techno moves to his side of the bed then, taking off his cloak to hang up before sitting down to pry off his boots. Phil watches as Techno changes out of his traveling clothes and into clean ones, more strands having come loose from his braid from tugging his shirt off and on.
By the time Techno sits down on the bed again, the rags have warmed to Phil’s body temperature. Even if it was short-lived, the relief was nice while it lasted. He’s setting the rags aside when Techno reaches across the bed, hand gently grabbing Phil’s wrist so he can get a better look at the red parts of his arm.
“What’s worse right now? Shoulder or heels?”
Phil huffs. “Heels, like usual. Though the arm really isn’t pleasant either.”
Techno nods, absently tracing circles against Phil’s wrist with his thumb. “Really thought when we tried that fire resistance potion a while back that it would work.”
“Just goes to show it’s not really a problem with the burns,” Phil shrugged. “It’s the veins.”
Phil twists his hand around then, lacing his fingers with Techno’s. Techno stares at Phil’s hand for a moment, as though he’s not sure how it wound up pressed against his own. Then, he lifts Phil’s hand to press a kiss to his knuckles.
Although the gesture is sweet, discomfort rises in Phil at having his problems be focused on for so long. It’s not that big of a deal, and Techno knows that. It’s not as though his flare ups are this severe every time they happen. The vast majority of them are just a bit uncomfortable, easy enough to power through. And no matter how painful this flare up is, it’ll go away soon, they both know that. There’s no need to make a whole thing out of it.
Before he can pull away and ask Techno how the Woodland Mansion hunting went, Techno drops Phil’s hand and says, “Can I ask you a favor, Phil?”
Phil frowns. “Of course, mate.”
Techno gestures to his hair. “Could you redo my braid for me? I’d do it myself but I had to kill, like, thirty illagers today and my arms are kinda sore.”
“Sure thing. Where do you wanna sit?”
Techno doesn’t say anything as he shifts off the bed and onto the ground. He sets himself right by the bed so Phil has easy access to his hair. Phil keeps his grumbling to himself, even though he knows that Techno positioned himself lower so Phil wouldn’t have to lift his bad arm.
He only winces slightly as he drags himself to sit on the edge of the bed. Then, he uses his fingers to undo the rest of Techno’s braid. Techno hands him a hairbrush without him needing to ask, and he uses it to detangle Techno’s hair as carefully as possible.
Once the pink strands are smoothed out, Phil gathers some of the hair and starts to braid. While Techno usually braids his hair himself, he’s asked Phil to do it for him enough times that it’s muscle memory for Phil at this point. He relaxes into the motions, shifting most of his focus onto keeping the strands in front of him separated.
At one point, he has to tug on Techno’s head to tighten some of the braid he’s already done. This tilts Techno’s head back ever so slightly. Without thinking, Phil leans down towards Techno’s forehead.
“I know what you’re doing,” Phil murmurs against the skin before pressing a kiss there.
Techno snorts as Phil straightens back up. “And what is that?”
“You’re trying to keep me distracted so I don’t go running back out in the snow.”
“Yeah, you caught me,” Techno huffs, trying not to smile. “That’s a classic male manipulator move right there. Askin’ my partner to braid my hair so he doesn’t freeze his limbs off. You should’ve never trusted me.”
Phil rolls his eyes. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have.” He leans down again, tilting Techno’s head back far enough that he can kiss him on the lips. Despite the pain he’s in, he can’t help but smile into it, especially when Techno does the same.
The kiss lasts for a few seconds and Phil moves to deepen it, but Techno pulls away. “Phil, hold on, you’re gonna mess up the braid again if we start making out right now.”
Looking down at his hands, Phil sees the carefully separated strands he’d been holding have gotten all tangled together during his ‘momentary distraction.’ “Too late for that. I’m gonna have to restart.”
“You suck at this.”
“Shut up.”
After undoing the braid, Phil decides to do a more complex one than what he was originally planning. It would require more focus on his end, but that’s the point.
The effort has exactly the intended effect. Phil quickly loses himself in the braiding, brows furrowed in concentration as he separates multiple strands between his fingers. Techno doesn’t seem to mind the wait. He’s so quiet that at one point, Phil begins to wonder if he fell asleep sitting up. But then Techno shifts a bit in his seat, letting Phil know he hasn’t passed out on him.
When it’s finished, Phil ties the braid off with a leather cord. Techno grunts as he pushes to his feet, while Phil admires his own weaving skills from a distance.
“Looks nice,” Techno says after glancing at himself in a mirror.
Leaning back against his pillows, Phil hums as Techno moves to sit beside him on the bed. “Don’t really know what I was doing. I was kind of just fucking around.”
“Well I like it,” Techno tells him as he runs his fingers lightly over his head. “How’s the, y’know, invisible fire thing?”
Phil snorts. “Invisible fire is a new one.” Looking down at his arm, he notices the redness has disappeared. His skin is just about back to its normal color, and a glance at the heels of his feet shows the same. The pain had faded while he’d been focused on braiding, leaving nothing behind but a memory. “Looks like it’s calmed down.”
Techno seems relieved. “That’s good.”
Scooting closer to Techno so their shoulders bump, Phil grabs his hand to lace their fingers together. “Well, since that’s over with for the minute,” he says, grateful that they can finally move on from talking about him, “how’d the Woodland Mansion hunt go?”
“Destroyed ‘em. Obviously,” Techno huffs. “I spent most of the day traveling, honestly. It was kinda boring.”
“I spent most of the day feeling like shit, which is way more boring than you think it’d be,” Phil counters, leaning further against Techno. “Tell me the details. I wanna hear them.”
He feels Techno’s chuckle reverberate through his chest and finds himself smiling in response.
“Well, I guess I could tell you about this weird village I came across…” Techno begins.