Phic Phight 2026: Phic #4!!!!
Title: Ice My Wounds and Kiss Me Better
Summary: After everything went wrong in the worst possible way, Danny escapes into the Far Frozen. He only meant to go there to recover, but would it really be so bad if he just stayed?
WC: 1,268
TW: this is post-dissec so the boy is pretty injured but I don't go into a whole lot of detail
You can read the fic on AO3 or down below the cut
Danny crashed into a snowbank somewhere on the outskirts of the main village in the Far Frozen.
For half a second he thought about just crawling the rest of the way but then he felt the snow.
The cold felt so nice against his injuries he didn't dare move and risk ruining what little bliss he had.
Now that he wasn’t moving he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Or one eye anyway. The other was already closed partly because it was smooshed into the snow and partly because…
Well, the short answer was that it was injured.
He let his eyes close and figured he'd probably hear when someone came by.
Maybe.
His ears were still ringing like crazy.
He pulled a pile of snow closer to his chest with the arm that wasn't underneath himself. The cold felt so nice against his wounds but his core still ached.
He didn't think they had reached it when…
He was pretty sure the cuts weren't that deep…
So why did it hurt so much?
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Danny woke up only slightly aware.
He could tell he wasn't outside anymore.
There were a couple of people having a quiet conversation nearby. Their voices were too low and deep for him to understand anything.
He could feel the various bandages and medical gauze on all his wounds. There was even a patch over his injured eye.
There was an ever present yet gentle chill in the air.
That all seemed to point to him being in the Far Frozen's medical ward.
He was safe now.
He sighed and let himself drift back to sleep.
============================================
The next time he woke up he actually felt awake.
He was still sore but definitely not in as much pain as before.
He took a moment to take in the room. Or as much of it as he could with only one eye.
Frostbite was at his side, thankfully on the side that could see, once he noticed Danny was awake.
“I’m glad to see you awake, Great One.”
“Sorry for crashing in unannounced.”
“No need to apologize.” Frostbite said immediately.
He took a second but then spoke again, “There is something I would like to speak to you about.”
Danny took a breath and braced himself for the questions about why he was here.
“The injuries you have are,” Frostbite hesitated, “concerning.”
Danny focused his attention on the blanket over his knees instead of responding.
“It’s okay if you don't want to talk about it right now. I just need to ask a few things to make sure you heal properly."
Danny felt a little bit of tension leave his shoulders. He really hadn't expected Frostbite to hold off on questioning him.
He hardly wanted to think about what happened, let alone talk about it.
“Did you come into contact with any poisons, chemicals, or any other kind of foreign substance?”
Danny crossed his arms and hugged himself as he took a moment to compose himself. “Yeah.”
Frostbite pulled up a chair and laced his fingers. “I was afraid of that,” he said solemnly.
“I’m not sure what it was exactly but it made it so I couldn’t move.” He started to idly trace an imaginary line back and forth across his blanketed leg, “that wore off though. Obviously. I’d still be there if it hadn’t,” he rambled.
Frostbite placed his hand on the bed, “I’m terribly sorry you were hurt, but I am so thankful that you were able to make it here. My people and I will do our very best to have you healthy again.”
Danny took a breath.
He was so glad he had met Frostbite.
It was nice to have an adult who liked him. Or anyone really.
He was starting to think there was something wrong with him with how many people just could not stand him.
He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated and closed it again.
“Is something troubling you?” Frostbite asked gently.
“If I did something wrong you'd tell me right?”
“I'm always happy to help you learn and grow. But I feel there's more to it than that.”
“I'm probably just worrying over nothing, or maybe I am just a huge screw up and it's just a matter of time before I screw up enough for you to hate me too.” The corners of his eyes started to sting but he held it back. “I always try so hard to make everyone happy and fix things when I mess up, but it's never enough and somehow I always make things worse. Why is it so easy to have people hate me? What's so wrong with me that it's just so easy to hate my guts?”
“Great One, everyone can't hate you. Surely there are people who like you besides me and my people.”
“My two friends and my sister. That's it. Everyone else I know hates me.”
“Well clearly those other people have terrible tastes. I find you delightful.”
“What if I hadn't stopped Pariah Dark?”
“You helped me the very first time we met without knowing a thing about me.”
Danny thought back and he had helped Frostbite get rid of that big icicle from his back.
“And even if you hadn’t needed to do that when we first met, I would still like you.”
The ache in his chest started to soften. It was nice that he could ask stuff like this and not get talked down to or ignored.
It was nice to know that Frostbite really did care about him.
“Great One, I hate to pry but I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t list your parents on the list of people who like you.”
Danny felt a sharp sting in his core again.
“Great One?” Frostbite sounded worried.
Danny didn’t want to worry him.
Not saying anything was worrying him, but saying the truth wasn’t going to make it better.
“I didn’t because they don’t make the list.”
Frostbite didn’t say anything but Danny could tell he wanted to.
Danny looked up at him, and gave a slight nod. He might as well get it over with.
“Did they?” Frostbite started to ask but didn’t finish.
Danny looked away. He really didn’t want to think about this. Not right now.
The growl in Frostbite’s chest got Danny’s attention.
“Parents shouldn’t hurt their children.”
“They didn’t do it!” Danny quickly defended.
Frostbite relaxed only slightly.
“They didn’t take me being a ghost super well. They sent me away. I think they were trying to fix me. They wanted to get that nasty ghost out of me. I don’t know if they understand that the ghost is me.”
Frostbite pulled Danny into his arms and held him tight.
“Great One, I will personally make sure you have a place to stay here during and after your recovery. You are more than welcome to return to the human world once you are feeling up to it, but know you will always have a place here.”
It seemed like such a simple thing but Danny felt like that hug alone could heal him. It definitely made his core stop aching.
In fact, his core felt better than ever. A nice cool chill radiated off it and left him feeling completely content.
It was nice to know he had a place here.
Surely that offer for a place to stay meant that Frostbite would be the one to take care of him.
If not, well, Danny figured he had plenty of time to convince him. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.