Hermitcraft Oneshots and Short Stories

Old Pains - RenDoc fluff (season 8)

Doc was in pain.

No, it wasn't from an injury.

No, he wasn't down any health.

The pain was completely mental.

Totally and utterly in his head.

No physical wound to blame for the pain.

But Doc could pinpoint an area.

His right arm.

You see, Doc had lost his right arm in a fight with Dinnerbone.

And ever since then, Doc had been getting random flashes of pain that seemed to come from his missing arm.

Impossible right?

Apparently not.

Doing his best to not move his right arm, which was now replaced with robotics, Doc went about his normal day. Restocking the Octagon, logging profits into their book, gathering more stock to go into the Octagon later, as well as working on a large project he had started.

All the while, Doc was in excruciating pain. He did his absolute best to not show it, as Doc had been raised to hide any real emotions or pain in favor of being calm and emotionless.

Yeah, his family were kind of assholes.

But that's beside the point.

Doc hid any pain he was in, regardless of the intensity or duration of said pain. He hid it to the point of passing out from the pain many, many times, which, after witnessing Doc unconsious from pain, prompted his boyfriend Ren to constantly check in on Doc to make sure he was doing okay.

Ren hadn't checked in on Doc in a few days, but that was normal. Every three or four days is when Ren would check in and see what was up, and it had only been two days since his last check in.

So Doc wasn't expecting to be visited for a check in today.

While restocking the Octagon, Doc ran into Xisuma, who just so happened to be checking on the Derpcoin exhange spinner that he had installed recently near the entrance.

"Oh, hey Doc! How's business here at the Octagon?" The axolotl smiled, walking over to Doc as the creeper hybrid prepared to leave.

"Hey 'sesuma! Business is doing pretty well. People are really buying in Derpcoin, I'm loving it!" He smiled.

Xisuma noticed that Doc's voice seemed a bit strained but brushed it off, instead asking to go and collect any profits that had been made from the exchange.

Nodding as he opened up the wall, Doc led Xisuma down into the redstone where the two chests of profits had been placed.

As Doc reached in to grab his share of the diamonds, a sudden and sharp phantom pain erupted in his right arm, causing the tall hybrid to gasp before collapsing.

"Doc!" Xisuma exclaimed as he ran to the other man, crouching beside him and checking over his vitals.

Seeing that nothing seemed to be wrong, Xisuma was confused and decided to message Ren to see if he knew anything.

<Xisuma> hey Ren? I'm at the Octagon and ran into Doc
<Xisuma> we were checking the Derpcoin Exchange and he just passed out for no reason

<RenTheDog> shoot
<RenTheDog> I'm on my way, don't touch him

<Xisuma> what happened? You seem to know

<RenTheDog> I'll explain when I get there

Soon enough the sound of rockets and someone landing broke the silence as Ren arrived.

"X?" The dog hybrid called out, noticing the hole and rushing down into the redstone to crouch beside his boyfriend.

"He was grabbing you guys' share of the profits and just collapsed, I checked the chest and it's not trapped or anything. He just gasped and passed out!" Xisuma was slightly panicked, as he had never seen this happen before.

"Figures. This may sound odd, but Doc was raised to hide any pain he's in. This leads him to ignore pain and push it down until it gets so bad that he passes out from the pain. It could be something as simple as a pulled muscle, it could be something as serious as an ignored infection. Either way, he just needs to be watched until he wakes up, then I'll take him and make sure that he takes care of himself. I know it's not the best system but it has been working, and he's even gotten a bit better at telling me when he's in pain." Ren explained the situation to X as he looked in his inventory for things he would need.

"Oh wow. Uh, can you keep me updated on this? I don't like it that this happens and Doc just sees it as normal.." Xisuma stood up, still obviously worried but he was also prepared to leave and let Ren do his thing.

"Yeah, of course X." The wolf hybrid smiled and nodded, the admin nodding back before leaving.

After just a few minutes Doc woke up, groaning in pain and wincing when he moved his right arm.

"Hey baby.. let me guess, phantom pains?" Ren said quietly, gently taking Doc's left hand into his own.

"Ren? I- I'm sorry.." Doc closed his eye tightly in an attempt to stop the tears he could feel forming, only partially succeeding and eventually he just let his tears fall as Ren smiled sadly and held him.

"Its okay, I don't blame you. Come on, if you can walk alright we can go and cuddle, and just have a slow, relaxing day." Doc hesitantly nodded, not wanting to stop being busy but knowing he needed to rest and not overwork himself.

Ren helped Doc to stand up and the two slowly made their way to the duo's main base, Ren carefully helping Doc to sit down on their bed before going and grabbing the neccecary things that the two of them would need.

"Ren?"

"Yeah? What do you need, hun?" The wolf hybrid looked back at his boyfriend from the chest he was digging around in.

"I know it's difficult to do but can we take off my arm- it's just making it worse." Doc's voice was obviously strained, his left hand holding his right shoulder in a futile attempt to lessen the pain.

"Of course, let me grab the things I need for that." Ren set the things he had grabbed beside Doc and kissed his head before leaving the room temporarily.

Coming back into the room with some redstone tools in his hand, Ren sat on Doc's right side and set to work carefully disconnecting the wires and metal parts that connected Doc's arm to his shoulder.

"Thank you.." Doc said quietly after Ren finished taking the creeper hybrid's robotic arm off.

"No problem, Doc." Ren kissed Doc's rough cheek, carefully hugging him from the side.

Sighing in slight relief, Doc twisted and hugged back as best he could, hiding his face in Ren's shoulder as he carefully breathed through the pain.

"Come on, let's lay down okay?" Ren suggested quietly, carefully moving things off the bed so they could lay down comfortably.

Nodding, Doc helped to clear off the bed  and laid down half on top of Ren once there was room, purring softly when Ren started to pet his head.

The two laid like that for a long while, with Doc carefully laid half on Ren as the wolf hybrid soothed him. Not being able to stay awake any longer, Ren nuzzled his boyfriend before kissing his head and then falling asleep himself.

1,220 words

Leave requests! This story was inspired in part by an injury I got recently, although it wasn't a shoulder injury but rather a hip injury. I was in horrible pain for about 3-4 days straight and could barely walk, and even now after walking all day my hip hurts so ita not fully gone lol

Anyway hope you enjoyed!