Work Text:
Grian could tell that today was going to be a bad day the moment the world around him spun when he cracked his eyes open. He slammed them shut again, the moment he registered the spinning; nausea was swirling in his gut despite having not eaten anything since the previous day, and he really didn't feel up to vomiting today.
However, he had things he had to do, and those things were work- more egg and chicken cleanup was needed (he didn't know if he would ever be rid of all of the dragon eggs and chickens), he had some more work to do over at the Buttercup Camp so it was ready for whatever Doc and Ren planned next, and the Entity needed to be restocked once more; Grian was in desperate need of the diamonds at the moment, and his shop was the best way to get those.
Forcing his eyes open once more, he resolutely ignored how the room spun around him, and sat up, swaying slightly as the spinning only got worse and his nausea doubled. He shivered as he pulled back the blanket that covered him, having pulled it over himself late in the night when his wings hadn’t been enough to keep him warm, and crawled out of his nest, leaning against the wall to steady himself once he was standing.
He knew he was sick, he knew this fact the moment he had opened his eyes, but with all the work he had to get done, he had no time to rest!
Instead of resting like he knew he should, he turned his sights for the kitchen, determined to eat something before he got to work to hopefully help him feel slightly better, however, the moment he was looking into the rather small kitchen that he had built, the nausea from earlier made itself know once more, and, placing a hand against his stomach to see if that would help calm it down, Grian decided that he could skip breakfast for today.
With that having been done, he turned to leave his base, new destination being the Buttercup camp as neither Mumbo or Scar would be there until later that day and he didn’t need to worry either of them with his condition.
***
The camp was empty, just as he had been hoping and expecting, so Grian got to work.
He needed to tend to Goateater, clean up some of the cherry blossoms that had fallen, just so there weren’t too many of them getting everywhere, clean up his tent and make sure he could crash there the next time he, Mumbo, and Scar were surveying the Perimeter, and do a quick check to make sure that Doc or Ren hadn’t done anything to the camp, thankfully finding nothing that had been tampered with.
Once he had finished all of that, the sun was high in the sky, and Grian knew that he had to get out of there sooner rather than later before anyone found him; he knew that if he was found then he would be forced to rest, and while he definitely needed to rest, there was no way he could allow himself to rest when there was so much work for him to get done, especially considering just how long it took him to finish up tending to the camp.
Turning his attention away from said camp for now, Grian retreated back to his base, returning the materials he had gathered that morning to the nearest shulker box, before making a quick stop in his kitchen so he could grab a bottle of water to take with him to the Entity.
He registered, in the very back of his mind, that he felt significantly worse than he had that morning, but he brushed it off, telling himself that he would be fine for the rest of the day and that he would spend the next few days resting, before exiting his base and returning to his storage area; it took him longer than he would have liked to find the boxes that he had set aside the other day for his next restock, but now that he had them he could make his way over to the shopping district.
Spreading his wings to prepare to take flight, his world spun once more, and his wings snapped closed in response to the sudden movement. It took a few minutes, but as soon as he could see straight once more, or as straight as he could with how badly the world was still spinning, he huffed out an annoyed breath and decided that, if his wings were going to betray him today, he would just walk to the Shopping District; he knew that it would take a while, and anyone he encountered would be bound to ask questions (especially considering the fact that he flew everywhere), but he had to get this done before he could rest, so walking it was.
***
He made his way to the Shopping District as fast as he could, thankfully not meeting anyone along the way, before he finally arrived at the Entity where he unloaded his shulker boxes.
He made his way around to all of the various chests that he had littered around the area, and the shulkers full of wool, concrete powder, and dyes, collecting the diamonds that he had made from his sales, making sure to replenish his stock as needed.
Once the restocking had been completed, he wiped away the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead, wincing slightly at the heat he could feel radiating off of his skin, before brushing it off and taking a step back to look at the Entity. Sure it was supposed to have a physical representation of what he was selling on it, hence the tree and water wheel, but he had ended up dropping that idea pretty soon after he had started stocking more and more items just like he had in previous season; he wished he had continued on with it, but, if he was being honest, he didn't have the time or motivation to, so he would just have to be content with it the way it was.
He sighed as he looked up at it, deciding to put adding to the Entity off, just like he kept putting off doing more to the back of his base, and headed back to his base; now that he had restocked his shop, he was all set to head back and get some more of the eggs and chickens cleared out of his base.
As much as he didn’t want to do it (not to mention that Mumbo and Scar weren't really helping all that much at the moment), now that he was no longer having problems when blocks and items were affected by gravity, it wasn’t as bad as he had thought it would have been, but the sheer number of eggs, plus the chickens that he was still finding, made it a long and tedious process that he really hated doing; it needed to get done though, so get it done he would.
***
The walk back to his base was probably about ten times worse than the walk to the Shopping District as the sun was now high in the sky, beating down on him like there was no tomorrow, and there was practically no shade while he walked.
When he eventually made it back to his base, he forced himself to keep going, knowing that if he allowed himself to talk a break now, even a five minute break to grab another bottle of water, he wouldn’t be able to continue working later on, so he quickly dropped off what he hadn't needed for his restock, and grabbed some pistons and redstone; the hunt for the remaining eggs and chickens was on.
And if he was being honest, no matter how bad this was, Grian was in no way regretting poking the Goat; he knew that what would happen next in this competition would be well worth it, as it always was.
***
By the time he had finished one section, he felt like he was going to collapse. His vision was swimming, and the heat wasn’t helping any. Pulling the empty bottle of water out from earlier, Grian mentally berated himself for only grabbing one and not having the energy or restraint to go and grab another, so he just returned the empty bottle to his inventory, instead shakily pulling out some more pistons and laying them down, making sure that they would hit the egg.
When he went to activate the pistons however, Grian’s vision doubled and his world turned to static, causing him to collapse onto the ground. The sudden movement, paired with the little bit of water he had drank with an already uneasy stomach and the brutal heat, caused his nausea to return tenfold. Clamping a hand over his mouth, Grian tried his best to force his nausea back, not wanting to have to clean up vomit from outside of his base, but, as luck would have it, Grian he was losing the battle with his nausea, and, soon enough, his body was pitching forward with a gag, before water and bile came spilling from his lips.
He stayed in that position, hunched over on the ground, just throwing up anything that his body felt like it could, eventually turning to dry heaving as his body had expelled everything that it could, before completely collapsing, just barely missing the small puddle of bile and water by sheer dumb luck.
He whined in pain, curling up in as tight of a ball as he could, wings covering him despite the heat from the sun. His eyes fluttered shut a moment later, and before he let the darkness claim him, his final thought was of how he still had so much work he had to get done.
***
Doc had called Ren over to the Perimeter so the pair could check on the Buttercups’ cleaning progress on the eggs that had been left scattered around the three’s bases; Ren was very excited to see how many Grian still had left, having been a bit too excited when placing them all down, especially after his whole King Ren arc and Grian’s ‘betrayal’ with his room.
Scarland was still covered in eggs, not that Doc and Ren had been expecting much else with how much work the elf had to do around the park and with the castle, but there had been some progress made; they were both were fairly sure that Scar had help in getting rid of the eggs, but that didn't really matter all that much to them.
Mumbo’s vault was mostly cleaned up, also not surprising considering he had the fewest eggs to clean up, however it was a bit confusing as to why he hadn’t cleared them all yet, considering just how few were left.
Grian had appeared to make a very sizeable dent in the cleanup process, both with the eggs and the chickens that had been left at his base, which was quite the surprise, especially when one considered his base, and the lack of its back.
“Aww, he’s seemed to have cleaned most of them up,” Ren huffed, arms crossed as he pouted.
“Well, this is only the front of his base. We still have to check on the back and the pathway. You covered that area, dude. I doubt he has managed to clean them all up,” Doc pointed out, causing Ren’s ears to perk up.
“Oh, you’re right!” Ren cried out, skipping towards the entrance of Grian’s base, before he froze. “Hey, Doc? Is that Grian?” Ren asked, pointing to a red lump on the ground.
“Hmm? It could be. I wouldn’t think so. He never really lies down to take a break, especially not when he's working,” Doc replied, but there was worry in his voice as he spoke, “ though, we should check it out regardless, just in case.”
The pair made their way closer, realising a moment later that it really was Grian. Worry now coursing through their bodies as to why Grian would be on the ground in the blazing sun, the pair rushed over, Doc making it there first as he knelt next to the unconscious avian.
Ren hurried up next to him, tail tucked between his legs as he took in Grian’s state.
“What happened?” He asked, watching as Doc scanned over Grian.
“He’s sick.” Doc said, carefully pushing back one of Grian’s wings to expose his flushed face before continuing. “Let’s take him back to the Perimeter. His base probably still has chickens in it, and I would like to keep an eye on him considering how we found him.”
Ren nodded, watching as Doc effortlessly picked Grian up, when he noticed the small puddle of water and bile on the ground. “Yeah, definitely sick,” he muttered, before kicking some dirt over the puddle and hurrying to catch up to Doc.
***
When Grian awoke, he was confused as to where he was. The last thing he remembered was being outside, so the fact that he was now inside, and on a bed of all things, was heavily disorienting for his already fever hazed mind. Looking around the room to try and figure out where he was, Grian’s eyes landed on Doc who was now entering the room.
“Ah, you’re awake now. Care to explain what you were doing building when you have a 38.7°C fever?” Doc asked, only to be hushed by Ren who was also entering the room.
“Give G-Man a moment to wake up,” Ren hissed, despite also wanting to know just what had been going through Grian’s mind at the time.
Grian blinked, looking at the pair, who he was technically at war with, for a moment while his mind tried to catch up with what was going on.
“I had work to do,” Grian said a moment later, “had to restock and check up on the camp.”
“And that couldn't have waited until you were not wracked with a fever, why?” Doc asked, exasperation colouring his voice.
“I was fine,” Grian muttered, eyes falling to the white bedspread.
“Considering we found you passed out, you were not ‘fine’,” Doc snarked, walking over to be next to Grian’s bed, allowing his mechanical eye to scan over the avian. “Your temperature is still hovering 38.7°C and I know that if I let you go, you will just go straight back to working, so you’re stuck here until that fever goes away. Don't make me tie you to that bed to keep you here.”
Grian wanted to protest, wanted to say that he would be fine and that he had worked while feeling worse, but Ren had made his way over as well, sitting on Grian’s opposite side to the one Doc was standing by, and had started to card once of his hands through Grian’s hair in the way that he knew would knock him out from their days, back in Season Six, of being a hippie together, and Season Seven during the Mycelium Resistance, so Grian stood no chance in escaping; he also knew that Doc would 100% act on that threat, and he didn't feel like succumbing to the fate of being tied to the bed again..
He could feel his exhaustion starting to take back over, and he didn’t try to fight it this time, knowing that Ren was one of the very few people who knew most of his weak spots (the only people who knew more than Ren was Mumbo, Scar, Pearl, Jimmy, Martyn, and Xisuma), so he allowed himself to sleep, hoping that when he woke up again, he would be able to convince Doc to let him go.
***
In the end, he wasn’t allowed to leave until he was fever free, and the one time he had tried to escape on his own, Doc had caught him and threatened to tie him to the bed again just like they had to do to Xisuma whenever he got sick as he despised being away from his work, so Grian relented, even if he was a bit shocked that he was being warned of this fate once more, and not just being tied down; he had once suffered the same fate as X did back when he was running Evo, before the Watchers had completely taken over, and he didn’t want to go through that once again.
When he was eventually set free though, the first thing he did, after thanking Ren and Doc for looking after him while he was sick, was to write ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ on the wall of the Perimeter, because even though he was thankful that the pair had looked after him, they were still at war, and Grian was itching to stir up some chaos.