Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

LuxSeb: I've Got Your Back

Henri opened the door before wincing. He'd been doing that a lot lately. He closed the door before shuffling towards the nearest couch, slowly lowering himself on the cushions with another groan.

"Hey, you're back," Marcello said, coming into the room. He frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"It's just my back," Henri said. "I don't know what happened, but I've been stuck with this backpain the whole day."

Marcello walked closer and grabbed Henri's shoulder, gently starting to rub it. Henri sighed.

"It's more my lower back," Henri said.

"Then get on your stomach," Marcello said.

It was difficult work, but Henri finally managed to lie on his stomach. He flinched a bit when Marcello's hands went to his lower back and started to massage the muscles. Henri tensed a few times when Marcello managed to find a particularly hard ball of tension.

"You've been neglecting yourself," Marcello said. "You say you don't know what happened?"

"No idea," Henri said. "Throughout the day, it kept getting more and more painful. I don't think I've done something that would cause this."

Marcello kept massaging, and Henri sighed, the pain being relieved a bit. Finally, Marcello stopped.

"I'm going to get a hot pack for you," he said. "Do you think you can manage to get to the bed?"

"I'll try," Henri said, pushing himself up. His back did feel better, but it was still painful. "I think I'm going to take a hot bath after dinner. Do we still have that bath tonic?"

"The one for sore muscles? I think so."

"I'm going to need some of that too."

So, guess who had backpain recently. I actually had to go to physio for that, since it lasted for more than a week (three weeks in total). Turns out, there are a few factors. One factor is that I recently got the second dose of the vaccine, and like the virus, it has a tendency to affect the soft tissue. I also took a break from exercising to allow my body to recover after the vaccine (after my first experience, I wasn't going to take chances), and then after a week resumed it. There was also tension from my hip flexors, and a nearby group of muscles had a spasm, and all of these combined to give me a massive backpain. It's better now, and the physio said I don't have to come back for it.

I'm not sure about how well-known it is outside of South Africa, but the tonic referred to is part of the Deep Heat brand. For muscle pain, this is usually a reliable source of relief, and I've literally received the question 'What smells like Deep Heat?' when I have an injury. The sharp scent is the other thing that everyone knows about it.