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"The house is looking good, Phil."
The blonde looks up from working on the roof of his house and looks down at Techno who stood in the snow below, a burlap sack thrown over his shoulder with one hand and the other hand blocking out the sun as he looks up. Phil smiles at the sight of his friend.
"Thanks, mate! It's a really nice day today so I figured I'd get some more work done on it! The plan is to get the roof finished before another blizzard hits." He explains while looking back at the work he's gotten so far. He's pretty close to finishing the exterior of his house. All that was left was to finish off this half of the roof so he can start on the other half.
Techno hums. "Fair enough."
Phil turns back to his friend. "How was your hunting trip?"
"Pretty good, pretty good. I think I've got enough to last us a while," Techno replies as he starts walking up the steps. "Have you had lunch yet?"
"Nope, I was waiting for you!" Phil says as he jumps off the roof, allowing his wings to let him glide and have a softer landing on the bridge connecting his house to Techno's.
"Cool, we'll do that then." Techno walks into his house, leaving the door open for Phil who follows behind, quickly closing the door to keep the cabin as warm as possible. He hangs up his cloak and stomps most of the snow off his leather boots while Techno hurries over to the fireplace and throws on a couple of logs, lighting it with some flint and steel to get the house warmed up as soon as possible.
"What do you for lunch?" Techno asks as he stands back up and makes his way to the kitchen.
Phil shrugs, following him. "Up to you, mate."
Techno hums in acknowledgement and gets to work on some rabbit stew, now having an abundance of them from his hunting trip. Techno works on preparing the rabbit and boiling the water while Phil chops up the vegetables. The two of them work in tandem, moving around each other with a coordination that can only come from years of companionship. They alternate between working in comfortable silence or talking about whatever comes to mind, cracking stupid jokes that'll get the other to laugh.
This is nice. Phil thinks to himself as he hands the chopped veggies over to Techno to drop into the stew.
It's been a few weeks since he had fled from his home in L'Manburg, a few weeks since Techno was brought in for his execution. After seeing what the cabinet did to his best friend and to him, he couldn't stay there. And so, with the help of Techno, he took his valuables and left, deciding to settle into retirement with his old friend. Shortly after he decided to live with Techno, the two of them discovered Tommy who had escaped his exile and hid in a hole under Techno's basement. Techno wasn't the happiest to see Tommy but after some convincing from Phil and seeing the state that Tommy was in, he allowed him to stay, nursing him back to health so the kid wasn't one windy day from turning to dust.
Even now, things are still a little awkward between all of them, but Tommy has started to warm up to the two of them again and Techno has done the same. Tommy appreciates that they don't question him about why he looked so horrible when they found him, or what exile was like. All it did was upset the boy and send him into a panic attack, so they stopped asking and just helped him, to the point that even he is starting to recover from his exhaustion and malnourishment.
Even Technoblade's voices have finally calmed down now that they've settled back into the rhythm of retirement. It was a struggle for the Piglin Hybrid at first, especially after the Butcher Army came for him. But eventually, it got easier to ignore the bloodlust and demands of the voices, and satisfy them by going out on hunts. Nowadays, barring a few bad days he sometimes has, the voices are more of an annoyance than anything horrible.
Phil had now moved to washing the dishes they dirtied while Techno keeps an eye on the stew. Once again, chatter and laughter fill the kitchen as they enjoy each other's company. Phil had rolled his sleeves up to keep them from getting wet as he washed the dishes.
This ended up getting Techno's attention.
Now, Phil's arms were covered in scars. That was nothing new. He's lived longer than Techno has been alive, so it's only natural that he had many scars over the years. But what caught his attention were the scars that were still fresh, still healing. They couldn't be anymore than a few weeks old and they were too clean of a cut to have been some sort of accident.
"Uh, Phil? What's with those scars?" He asks while pointing at the fresh scars.
Phil freezes as he looks down at the scars Techno was referencing. He grimaces and turns off the water, drying his hands on the nearby towel. "Yeahhh, that..."
Techno ended up getting more concerned after hearing Phil's response. "What are they from?"
Phil huffs, furrowing his brows. "The stupid Butcher Army. When they came to my house to interrogate me, Quackity had decided that house arrest wasn't enough of a punishment for defying them, so he, well, used his axe to rough me up a bit."
Techno gawks at him. "Heh?? Are you serious???"
Phil nods, clearly not happy about it either as he absentmindedly rubbed his arms. "It could've been worse though. Quackity also wanted to use shears on my wings, but that's where Tubbo and Ranboo stepped in and stopped going too far,"
Techno's eyes go even wider before anger overtakes his face and he growls. "Then I'm glad I killed that lunatic! That's awful!"
Phil grabs his friend's hands, gaining his attention, and he smiles up at him.
"Don't worry, I'm alright now!"
Techno takes in a deep breath and lets it out in a long sigh. "We're gonna make them pay, Phil. For what they did to you, to me, and to Tommy."
Phil nods. "We will, mate. But in the meantime," He looks back at the pot where the now ready stew was ready. "Let's get our footing for now. Revenge can wait."
Techno nods and pulls his hands away to turn off the stove and dish up the stew.
"Better go get Tommy. He's probably still with the animals in the barn."
Phil hums and heads towards the door to slip on his cloak and boots once more. But a voice stops him just as he opens the door.
"Hey Phil?"
He turns his head to look back. "Yeah, mate?"
Techno stared at him. "I'm glad you're okay."
Phil smiles. "I'm glad you're okay too, Tech." He says before leaving the house, closing the door behind him.