Work Text:
Philza has lived his entire life being careful as he can possibly be.
It makes sense, after all. Phil is a Hardcore Player. He's used to having death be permanent, at least until the Gods revive him and he has to spend months recovering both physically and emotionally. And sure, there are different servers and worlds like Hypixel where you'll respawn no matter how many times he dies, but he's still cautious.
And then there's Technoblade. His best friend, his life partner... and he gets gray hairs from how reckless he can be.
He knows "Technoblade Never Dies" and to his credit, his friend hasn't really died much whenever they play a world or Hypixel game together. But that doesn't mean he doesn't worry whenever he does get hurt. He isn't indestructible and while he is very skilled, he still will often ignore whenever he gets hurt or injured in favor of slaying his opponent or just getting sidetracked cuz of course.
Like the time they raided a Woodland Mansion in a Survival World.
-
Phil stabs an Evoker and watches as the body disappears into a cloud of smoke, picking up the emeralds and Totem he dropped.
"Alright, that should be the last one," Phil says as he puts the items into his inventory, the items turning into a flash of white crystals before disappearing.
"Now then, let's see what's in this chest," Techno replies as he opens it up and immediately starts rummaging through it.
Phil stands just a couple of feet away from him, keeping his sword out and handy just in case.
"Bruh, this loot was not worth it. Some rotten flesh, wheat, beetroot seeds and a Bane of Arthropods book." He reports, still looking in the chest like something better will just materialize in front of him.
Phil chuckles from behind his friend. "I mean, the beetroot seeds wouldn't be terrible. It'd be nice to grow something else in our fields than just potatoes and wheat!"
Techno scoffs. "I can't you'd bash potatoes, Phil. Shaking my head."
Phil laughs again but before he could respond with another remark, he sees a small gray ghost float through the walls, carrying a sword in one hand with a malicious grin on its face. A Vex. Phil's eyes widen but the Vex ends up slashing its sword at Techno before Phil could do anything.
"Ow!" Techno cries out as he quickly backs away from the chest, the Vex giggling as it starts floating towards him again. Phil quickly runs over to help him fight it, but it kept flying around too fast, and mixed with how small it was, it made it very annoying to hit.
Techno also engages in combat with Phil and ends up hitting his swings, but the Vex gets his own hits too, causing Phil's heart to lurch.
Together they kill the Vex pretty quickly after that, but Phil couldn't take his eyes off of the small slashes that were across Techno's arm and shoulder.
The pink haired man looks over at his friend. "Are you alright, Phil?"
Phil blinks at him as if he couldn't believe that Techno just said that. "Wha- am I alright?? I should be asking YOU that, mate! You need to be more careful when fighting!"
But Techno just shrugs as he pulls out some steak from his inventory. "I'll be fine, Phil. They're just a few cuts, nothing serious." He replies casually.
However, Techno could tell that his friend wasn't satisfied with that answer due to how his wings slightly puffed up and he had a doubtful expression on his face.
He lets out a sigh. "If it makes you feel better, I'll try to be more careful and alert, alright?"
That seemed to satisfy Phil enough because he lets out a short sigh and relaxes a bit. "Fine, that's better than nothing."
"Not everyone can immediately have all of the survival skills and wisdom you do, old man." Techno adds on with a smirk, earning an elbow into his side which causes him to laugh.
PHil grins up at him. "Shut it! You'll be as old as me soon enough!"
"Geeze, I hope not. Who will take care of you when I do?"
They laugh together as they leave the woodland mansion behind.
-
That was just one of the many, many, many instances that Techno didn't care too much about the damage he was taking.
There were many other instances like that despite all of Phil's scolding and patching up.
But there was one specific moment that was the last straw for Phil.
-
Techno got interested one day about what playing in a Hardcore World would actually be like, so Phil created a new one for them, under the condition that Techno would be more careful and listen to Phil, as sometimes it's better to fight something from a distance when you're in Hardcore.
And so they went about the day like it was just another survival world, except this is where Techno sees a side of Phil that he's never really seen, at least not to this extent. Especially in caves and ravines.
When it came time for them to enter a ravine to get ores, he watched as Phil would very carefully dig his way down the side of the sheer drop, only getting the ores that were easily accessible. He hardly risked going for ore that was all the way at the bottom of the ravine or too high up on the walls or ceiling.
And to Techno's credit, he understood why. He would be lying if he said he wasn't keeping a closer eye on Phil than he usually does due to them being in a Hardcore World (and he still hasn't let his friend live down the fact that he died to a baby zombie, but he goes out of his way to fight them so that Phil doesn't have to. He's not taking any chances).
They eventually do make it to the bottom of the ravine though, and Phil immediately starts lighting up the area while Techno gets the ores that Phil didn't want to get himself. So far things have been pretty easy. They were pretty much just playing another regular hard world, but he knows better than to tell Phil to relax. On any other world he usually has to get his friend to be less careful than he usually is, but he knows better than to tell him that on a Hardcore World. He knows more about Hardcore than Techno does anyway, so he's not gonna argue.
The two of them placed down a furnace and crafting table near the side of the ravine so that they could smelt what iron they got to make a shield and a bit of armor. Phil keeps watch for any mobs while Techno works on the smelting and crafting. Techno crafts a shield and hands it to Phil, knowing the man will be a lot more comfortable if he has something to block with. Phil thanks him and immediately goes back to being on watch as Techno crafts the rest.
As soon as Techno finished making some iron tools, armor, and a shield for himself, the sound of monsters started to approach from the darkness. A couple of zombies, a skeleton, and a spider. Nothing too bad, Techno thought.
Phil immediately pulls out his bow and shoots the mobs as much as he can before carefully engaging in close combat once they are too close for his bow. Techno, however, just went in like he usually does, forgetting for a brief moment that the stakes were much higher than normal after he gets hurt by the spider and sees just how much damage it does.
Despite that though, he backs up far enough to eat something real fast before he goes back in swinging, taking damage but killing the mobs before they had a chance to kill him. It wasn't until he and Phil killed them all that he realized the damage he had taken. He was slightly unsteady on his feet as his body was covered in bites and gashes.
"Techno, are you alright??" Phil asks, right next to him in a second and scans over him quickly, surveying the damage.
"Don't worry, Phil, I'm fine." Techno claims yet slightly stumbles a bit on his feet before steadying himself again. Phil stares at him like he's crazy.
"As if! I told you to be more careful!"
He lets out a huff, his wings fluffed up in worry and stress before he starts digging out a small hole in the wall of the ravine. He moves their crafting table and furnace inside before guiding Techno inside too, blocking off the entrance so that they were out of harm's way.
"Sit down," Phil says, waiting until Techno sits on the stone ground and rests his back against the stone wall. Phil kneels down beside him and rips off strips of cloth from his green haori and starts wrapping it around Techno's wounds.
"This is what I mean by you need to be more careful! I know you're confident in your abilities and you're very skilled, but you still can't just... storm into battle like you're indestructible!" Phil rambles while wrapping the cloth around his wounds. He looks up to meet Techno's gaze, and his friend could see the worry on Phil's face.
Techno's expression softens slightly at the sight of it and he lets out a sigh.
"Alright, you're right. I'm sorry. I swear from now on, I'll be a lot more careful, I promise."
Phil studies his face for a moment. "You promise?"
"I swear by it, Phil."
That seemed to satisfy Phil and he relaxed a bit once more, pulling his arms back after he finished patching Techno up.
"You better keep that promise, mate."
Technoblade smiles at him. "Anything for you, Phil."