Day 5 - "Let me see" with hurt!Techno

Other characters: Philza

Other tags: Dream smp, burn wounds, blood & injury

Summary: And this is why you ask for help


Technoblade has become intimately familiar with every ache and stiffness his body is prone to.

Long-healed injuries mapped out by the scars on his skin, damage that sits deep as muscle and acts up when least convenient. He knows the headaches he suffers as echoes from the failed execution. He recognizes the dull pain that settles at the end of his spine at times, and the limp that resurfaces when he pushes himself past his limits.

He carries his battles with him, as any warrior does.

When he wakes up, his shoulder hurts. And it hurts bad.

Techno doesn't have to look, he remembers what happened the day before.

They went to the Nether. It was a rare excursion where Techno and Phil had traveled together, both seeking their own assortment of supplies. Neither of them had been looking for blaze rods in particular but finding the odd nest, Techno wasn't about to pass up on them when convenient.

There had been a lot more than they expected though, and for a brief moment they'd actually needed to make an effort in fighting them off. Techno had been hit in the fray, a wayward burst of fire catching him in the back, right above the shoulder blade.

Techno rubs at the skin there, pinpricks as if there are a hundred tiny needles being pressed in over and over again. But it's such a minor thing - he hadn't wasted a health potion on it back then and he isn't about to now if he can help it. The wound feels moist and he does admit to himself he probably should have taken a look at it earlier. But in the chaos, it had simply slipped his mind.

Sleeping on it certainly couldn't have helped.

He cranes his neck but it's hard to see the part of his shoulder that hurts from this angle. He rotates the joint and finds it perfectly fine, if a bit painful. Certainly nothing to stress about.

Perhaps leaving it as is will be fine?

Phil isn't around for breakfast but drops by directly after on his way out to visit the nearby village. He takes one look at Techno and smiles, compassionately. "Your back hurts again?"

Techno had honestly been kind of drifting off while staring at the tea he had cooling in front of him (something about not getting good sleep because he spent all night basically lying on top of an open wound). He pulls his attention back to the present. "Hm?"

Phil takes his eloquence in stride. Techno knows he's not the most conversational for the first two hours after waking up.

"You're holding your spine all stiffly, you usually do that when it hurts." Phil digs into one of his chests without asking. Techno would be more offended if he had asked. "Thought it might be your back again."

"Yeah…" Techno watches the wings folded against Phil's cloak, one of them almost completely unchanged while the other skew to the side, damaged primaries and alula never fully recovered. Phil knows a thing or two about chronic pains, of course. "I mean, I didn't sleep great. Mostly just tired, I think."

Not a lie exactly.

"I'll bring us back some turmeric then, I believe we're out. You want me to get you a potion in the meantime?"

"Nah." Techno drinks his tea, gone cold and bitter. The taste distracts him from the slight throbbing that has settled on the injury. "I'll take it easy today, don't worry." His last words are spoken mostly in response to Phil who throws him a dubious look.

"...Okay."

Phil leaves and Techno drinks his tepid, terrible tea. When he's done he doesn't want to get up, because his shoulder hurts and moving will make it worse and he can already feel the cloth of his undershirt stick to the blister's damp surface so imagine what throwing on a heavy cape on top of that would do.

But then again, he needs to finish the chores around the cabin. Or he'd have to ask Phil when he gets home. Phil who is going to travel all the way to the village and then all the way back and probably be winded from that alone. Techno isn't going to give him any more work. Definitely not work that is easy and can be done by himself.

Right, yeah, that sounds logical.

He gets up and collects his stuff, stopping to feed Steve (and give him some scritches behind his ear that kind of hurt when he's using his left arm) and throwing a chorus fruit to Edward for him to eat. Then he goes outside to feed the dogs and foxes as well.

By the time he gets to Carl, the burn has gone from its sharp but easily-ignorable stabs of pain to a continuous smarting. He restocks the hay, cleans the stable, and brushes Carl down embarrassingly slowly. When he lifts his arm, it hurts. When he lowers it, it hurts again.

By the time he gets to the bees, he can't really lift it either way. That's what people have two arms for, obviously.

By the time he gets to the turtles, he's considering tearing the thing straight from the socket. There's no way that would make it more painful than it already is.

Then he goes home and sits at the table again with a new cup of tea also growing cold because lifting it seems like too much effort and probably excruciating too. He grabbed a book from his bookshelf, but it lies open and ignored.

Techno knows he should get up and do something about this.

Phil comes back and finds Techno in the exact same position he left him in.

"Oh, hey! I didn't know if you were gonna be home."

"I got done with the chores so," Techno gestures at his book, "decided to take it slow today, like I said."

"Yeah, of course. Market was fucking packed today, by the way. It was insane. They didn't even have any lapis." He's wiping his feet on the rug pressed up against Techno's front door and internally Techno is begging Phil not to take his coat off. Because that means Phil is sticking around and then Techno is just going to have to sit here awkwardly pretending not to be in incredible pain and nobody wants that come on Phil-

Against all odds, Phil doesn't take his coat off. He puts the roots he got on the table in front of Techno. "For you. I got some more but I'm thinking I'll hold onto those."

"You've been having trouble?" Techno asks, a little more alert. It's easier focusing on Phil's hypothetical pain than his own very real, very current one.

"Eh, on and off." Phil shrugs, turns around and sees he hasn't moved a muscle. "You want me to brew it for you?"

"I'll do it in a second." Techno glances at the pages of his book. "Just gonna finish my chapter first."

Phil laughs. "Sure mate."

He leaves and Techno doesn't get up to make that brew, nor does he finish his chapter and at this point, he actually really quite would like to but the pain has traveled down his arm and up into his head and he's more than convinced that getting up now will only end with him face down on the floor.

And if that's the case, yeah he'll sit tight.

Just a few more minutes and then he'll finally get that potion. Techno grinds his teeth and closes his eyes and concentrates on anything except the pain and it's really hard actually with the added bonus of being nauseous-

The door opens again.

Techno blinks his eyes open, the question if Phil forgot something and that's why he came back so fast on the tip of his tongue. But the room is darker and Techno realizes he might have been sitting there a little bit longer than he realizes.

Phil stares at him, at the turmeric still on the table in front of him and the book with not a single page turned, and frowns.

And Techno can admit they've known each other long enough that to Phil, he's probably as see-through as glass by now. Doesn't mean he won't feel a little bit of resentment when annoyance settles on Phil's features immediately.

(it's fond, really. Fond annoyance and fond resentment. But the line between love and hate has always been so thin and also Techno wishes Phil couldn't read him like an open book and Phil probably wishes he wouldn't be such a stubborn bastard so here they are)

"Let me see," Phil says sternly. "Whatever's been bothering you all day. Show me, now."

Techno doesn't put up a fight. He leans forward a bit as he pulls open the drawstrings at the front and shrugs the shirt off his shoulder, allowing Phil to circle behind him and assess.

Going by Phil's darkening expression, it's not ideal.

"Look, it wasn't that bad at first-" Maybe on some other day, Techno could spend energy wondering why he jumps to defensiveness straight away.

"How was it not bad? For fuck's sake Techno, this looks like it happened yesterday."

"It did. Blaze farming, remember?"

Phil shakes his head, already retrieving everything they need to treat the wound. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"It wasn't that bad at first," Techno repeats. "Didn't feel worth bothering you about either."

Phil comes up behind him, hand hovering a bit to the side. "I'm going to be nice about this because I'm literally about to skin off a part of your shoulder." And as he says it he's already bringing the scalpel down. Technoblade hisses, claws digging into the table when infected epidermis is cut away. "But next time you're being like this I'm leaving you to suffer."

Techno's inhales stutter, the pain pretty bad but not unlike what he's been dealing with all day, and then Phil is drawing back to splash on the potion instead. The numbing effect is almost instant. "Duly noted."

"I'm serious," Phil says - as if that's in any way something Techno was doubting. But his voice takes on a softer, more worried quality as he circles back to the front. "You don't get to decide what's serious enough to require my attention. I'll do that on my own. Just… I can't help if you won't let me know, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." It burns in Techno's throat, an instinctive, deep-rooted desire to spit in the face of vulnerability and the notion that he needs that help sometimes. It's a work in progress, really. "Will you make me the brew at least? Cause I don't really want to get up right now."

"Well, you did ask nicely."

Phil makes him the infusion, even adding two extra spoonfuls of honey without Techno asking because he knows how much sweeter the piglin prefers his food. Then they sit together to talk in soft voices or read in silence, a little bit of both for whatever the mood strikes them as. And Techno's shoulder hardly even hurts anymore when he goes to bed.