Sleepy Bois Inc. Angst Oneshots

The Nether

TW: mentions of fighting/ bullying and minor injuries, worrying
AN: On a scale of one to ten, one being not at all and ten being completely, this ranks maybe 3.5/10 for angst. I don't know how I feel about this one. 🤔
~*~
Wilbur and Phil stepped through the swirling purple of the portal and appeared in the Nether. They stared out into the fiery scenery for a bit, marveling at the heat.

Wilbur smiled up at Phil in his too big golden armor. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and sheathed his sword.

"Go explore, mate. Just be careful." The eleven year old beamed and happily skipped off deeper into the hellscape. Phil watched him go with a smile on his face. Then, he turned to his tasks and got to work.

He started searching for gold and quartz, carefully placing down cobblestone as he went to keep himself from getting lost. Every once in a while, he'd call for Wil, and Wil would shout back a response to let him know he was okay.

After nearly two hours in the Nether, Phil was pretty much finished with his to-do list. "Wilbur, you about ready to go, mate?" he yelled. Nothing. He strained his ears to pick up Wilbur's response, but he couldn't hear over the noises of the Nether. He called for Wilbur again.

"Dad, help!" Wilbur yelled back. Phil dropped everything and sprinted towards the sound of Wilbur's voice. His heart raced as his mind imagined all the possibilities of what happened. Maybe Wilbur got into a fight with a Nether creature. Maybe he tripped and fell and got hurt. Maybe he was lost. Maybe he got stranded by the lava. Maybe-

Phil found Wilbur pretty easily. Luckily, he didn't seem to have any visible wounds. Even so, Phil scanned his son's little body again, just to be sure.

"What is it?" Phil asked, out of breath. Now that he had determined Wilbur was fine, he could finally catch his breath.

"He's hurt, and they're picking on him!" Wilbur cried. He pointed towards three adult piglins and a younger piglin, who couldn't have been much older than Wilbur. Phil paused and watched the older three shove the younger one around.

Without hesitation, he got into the older ones' faces. "Leave that kid alone," he warned, reaching for his sheathed sword.

The piglins merely huffed at him and raised their golden swords. It was obvious they didn't understand him. Phil raised his Netherite sword, and their eyes widened at the sight of it. They backed off quickly.

Phil turned to find the smaller piglin holding his own golden sword out in front of himself with shaky hands. The piglin dropped the sword and sat down hard, his little body shaking and heaving.

Phil knelt down in front of him and gently examined his wounds. The piglin had a couple of scratches and a couple of cuts. Nothing too serious; he was more frightened than anything.

What worried Phil the most was how skinny the little thing was. It was obvious no one had been taking care of the boy for a while. Phil's heart went out to the piglin. He slowly wrapped the little boy in a hug. The piglin squeaked and squirmed for a minute before realizing Phil meant no harm. Once he realized that, he hesitantly hugged back.

"Dad, what are we going to do with him? Can we keep him?" The piglin jumped when Wilbur spoke up. Phil thought for a minute and nodded. Wilbur walked over and reached his hand out. "I'm Wilbur, your new brother."

The piglin stared at Wilbur's outstretched hand before clumsily mirroring it. "Tech- Techno," he stumbled over the foreign language. Phil clapped his hands proudly.

Wilbur sat down next to Techno and started teaching him how to do 'human' things. Techno had managed to learn the high five and several English words by the time Phil was ready to leave.

"Okay, let's go home," Phil finally said, looking around to find the portal. He slapped his forehead when he realized in his panic, he had forgotten to mark the path with cobblestone. "Wil, do you know which way it is?" He turned to the eleven year old, who had busied himself with bandaging Techno up with bee-patterned bandaids from his bag. Phil laughed at the sight.

"No, didn't you mark it?" Phil shook his head before sighing. Techno stood up and stumbled over to Phil. He grabbed the older man's arm and said something in piglin tongue. Phil only blinked in response. Techno saw his blank look and snorted once.

He snorted again before stuttering, "Fol- follow." He tugged on Phil's sleeve and pointed in a direction. Phil looked at Wilbur and shrugged.

"Let's follow him." Wilbur stood up and brushed the red rocky dust from his pants. Phil took the smaller boy's hand in his free hand, and they started walking.

Techno led them past a pile of random things, and Philza joked, "I wonder what idiot left their stuff here." He laughed until he remembered that it was his stuff. He must have dropped it when he ran to find Wilbur. He slapped his forehead. "It's me. I'm the idiot."

He picked up his things and carefully put them back in his bag. He offered Techno a gold nugget which the boy happily took. Wilbur whined, so Phil gave him one, too. The boys had fun showing off their shiny rocks as they made their way homeward.

Soon enough, they returned to the portal. Techno paused, warily staring at the purple swirls. Phil squeezed his hand softly and said, "It's okay; we'll all go through together."

Wilbur let go of Phil's hand and turned to Techno. "I remember my first time going through the portal. It was really scary, but Dad held my hand when I went through. I was just fine, and you will be, too! I promise! I'll even hold your hand."

Techno looked at him and tilted his head in confusion. Wilbur nodded at him before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the portal. Phil watched his boys go through with a smile on his face.
~*~
(995 words)
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AN: I might hate this one; I don't really know how to feel about it. Sorry if it's bad. It's midnight, and I'm tired. I have a ton of drafts nearly finished which is why I mentioned spam-posting, but I just don't know where to go with them. I am trying to post more often, though!

On a much lighter note, thanks for nearly 6k reads and over 200 votes! 🥰 I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it's absolutely insane to me that I've gotten that many reads and votes. I never expected to get over fifty reads, much less six thousand!

Okay, goodnight. I'm gonna pass out now. *finger guns in sleep deprivation*