Things That Need To Pass (passerine!Technoblade x OC) {COMPLETED}

Harsh Colds

(3rd person POV)

They found a cave a short walk later, half-buried in snow but relatively warm inside. Techno set Wilbur down in one corner and piled all the spare furs from their packs on him, while Philza focused on making a fire.

"Well," Techno said, sitting down by Wilbur's feet and leaning against the cave wall, feeling light-headed, "he won't die of hypothermia, at least."

In response, Wilbur sneezed in his sleep.

"Death by common cold isn't off the table, though," Techno amended. "Not exactly going down in a blaze of glory, but I suppose no one really gets the death they want. Or deserve."

When his dry commentary was met only by silence, Techno turned to find Phil leaning over a pile of sticks and cloth. He had a flint in one hand a small knife in the other and was forcefully striking them together, but nothing caught. 

Phil muttered under his breath as he struck harder, and then the knife slid too far, nicking him. Philza dropped both blade and stone with a curse, cradling his wounded hand to his chest.

Techno raised an eyebrow at his clumsiness. "The long travel finally getting to you, Philza? Thought you'd be used to those by now."

"It's not the travel," Philza said quietly. "You know it's not."

"Maybe," Techno acknowledged, turning his head to stare out of the mouth of the cave. Night was beginning to fall outside, the snow on the ground glowing like molten lava in the light of the sunset. 

Techno found himself reaching for the blue sapphire that hung from his ear, absently turning it over between his fingers.

He could feel Philza's eyes on him, but he refused to turn around. After a beat, Techno could hear him picking up the flint and the knife again, striking them against each other so viciously that Techno almost missed his whispered question. "What happened to it?"

"What happened to what?"

Philza hesitated, but eventually clarified, "The emerald I gave you."

"Last time I checked, it was sitting in the bottom of a lake somewhere." Eryn scoffed.

Phil let out a humorless laugh. "I should have expected that."

Finally, Techno turned towards him. "So why didn't you?"

The question seemed to have taken Phil aback. He almost dropped the flint in the hand again, his eyes wide.

"What did you think I would do, Phil?" Techno continued before Phil could even take a breath to answer. "Carry it around with me even after you left? Hang it from my ear like a constant reminder of a friendship twice betrayed?" 

Techno scoffed at the stricken look on the other god's face. "Don't act as if you're any more sentimental. Should I point out that the emerald I gave you is glaringly missing from around your royal throat?"

Phil looked down, as if also just realizing that the emerald necklace that was twin to Techno's earring was no longer there. Still looking at the spot where it used to rest, Philza said, "There you go again with your presumptions, Techno."

"My presumptions?"

When Philza met his gaze again, his blue eyes blazed like frozen ice lit from within. "You once accused me of holding nothing sacred. I thought after all these years you might have realized." He struck the flint, and fire finally blazed to life in the dark cave. "Wilbur, Tommy, you. That is what is sacred to me."

For a while, there was only the flickering of the flames between them, casting shadows against the cold walls and their colder expressions. It brought Techno back to a different time, a different land of ice and snow, but with the same company—