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bokettochild · 7 months

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Febuwhump Day 18

@nancyheart11 you asked me for a Twilight Whump for this one, so I did my best! He wasn't talking, but it's a little tastier with the spice of another perspective >:)

I hope you enjoy!

Rating: Gen

Wordcount:

Summary: They talked about wandering off alone, but that doesn't exactly stop certain people (AKA Twilight) from not doing it again. Maybe Warriors is taking it too personally, but Mask's pup is giving him a headache. He just wants all his little brothers safe in one place, is that too much to ask?

(Note: I have not proof written this. My apologies, but half my keys aren't working, so typos are probably there.)

They do not run off alone, they just don’t! It’s not so much a rule as something that everyone understands, so why in Hylia’s name is it still so hard for the others to actually do? Warriors resists the urge to hiss at himself; he is not Mask or Wild, he is not a feral little creature that can’t use his words, but by Hylia’s Wings does he wish he could get away with it sometimes!

They’d talked about this! Not at length, and yes, his opinions had been very quickly dismissed in favor of discussing the ability of their enemy to shapeshift, but he’d expressed his disapproval with running off alone in the middle of a battle!

But who really listens to him anyway?

No, the captain stops in his tracks for a moment to shake off that thought, that’s not fair. Most of the other heroes listen. For Wind it’s second nature, and Time too, most days, listens without thinking about it. Even as an adult, the other respects his experience in leadership and knowledge of fighting and working with others. Four, even for his faults when it comes to actually working with and not simply around other people, still hears him out when he speaks. Sky and Hyrule both respect him for his title of knight and the work he’d put in to earn it, and even Legend, who despises soldiers, will respect his decisions and follow the plans he’s set. Yes, there's some disconnect, which is to be expected when working with a new team of people that aren’t accustomed to each other just yet, but they’re trying. Most of them are trying.

Twilight and Wild are their own story.

The captain’s teeth saw against each other as he ducks through the underbrush, following the faint trail left by big paws and the even bigger tracks of a moblin. How can a person be so determined to keep others in line and behaving, to keep others in the group safe and obeying the rules, and yet they themselves trod all over them?

Granted, he is also currently separate from the group, wandering off alone, but he’s not the only one and everyone else knows what he’s doing. He’s tracking Twilight while the rest collect themselves and make camp. Wild had offered to do it, but after the last time, he just can’t trust the kid to actually come back; Wild’s proved where his loyalties lie, and it’s with the rancher, not their group. When asked to make the choice, they all know what it would be.

He told the champion to stay.

He doesn't know if he’ll be listened to, since that’s also the other point of struggle here, but he’s done all he can. He’s a good tracker, used to picking up the slightest sign of enemy activity, and his reasoning of being their current medic and thus the best choice in the case Twilight had gotten injured in some way, seems to be reason enough for most of the rest. There’s offers of course, to have someone go with him as backup, but looking over the tired men and boys in camp, he turns them all down. They need the rest, and time to recover from their own injuries and exhaustion. As a soldier, he’s been trained to push his limits, his exhaustion, his pain, his physical abilities, and ignore all barriers until his assignment is completed. The others may be heroes, ones who’ve faced odds that soldiers could never imagine, but they’re not likely to have experienced that sort of pressure and he wouldn’t want them to.

They need their rest. He can get his once his duty is done.

Now if only Twilight wouldn’t make it so hard by having wandered off to Nayru knows where!

A hand drags through his hair, disrupting it, but it doesn’t matter. Yes, there’s a small voice that hisses to fix it, one that sounds a bit like Proxi, but these heroes care even less for how he looks on any given day than for what he says.

Still being unfair, Link. They aren’t all bad. They’re good kids.

Sure, they’d probably all take offence at being called kids but that’s what they are! The youngest are very young and even Time, their eldest, still looks to him through force of habit for guidance and aid. At most, he’d say the oldest most of them could be is twenty, early twenties for the rancher and skyloftian, but that’s still young enough to still be tripping over themselves in an effort to understand adulthood. They are, in his mind, still kids, and they’re mostly good ones, so he really can’t go lumping them all together as not giving a darn when they very much do. Not about his looks, thank Hylia, but about what he has to say? Most definitely.

Again, it’s just Time’s pups who don’t.

Goddesses, they take after their old man to an extreme level! It feels like just yesterday he was chasing down the little scamp, explaining the importance of comradery, of trust, of teamwork. Just yesterday, he was tilting brilliant blue eyes up to meet tired ones and asking, nearly begging, for the kid to please just give his way a chance.

He sort of doubts such methods will work on his kid’s much older pup though.

Twilight and Wild are similar in that they are stubborn, but they’re also much older than Mask had been, and neither is desperate for the stability the young boy had sought. They have Tie and each otehr, their own little bubble, separate from the rest of the heroes, and while both have an obvious respect for his skill, that’s about where their respect for him ends. They don’t look up to him, don’t admire him, don’t see him as anything more than another hero in their group, which is nice as far as not needing to babysit them goes. He’s glad that they don’t need him to keep an eye on them, that they’re stable enough mentally and in their perception of themselves that they don’t need someone else to support them, and if they do, they’ve already found that in each other. Still, having even the smallest of ways to get through to either of them would be nice.

He’d thought that experience with the army would help connect him with the champion, that maybe a bond with Time could be something he could connect with the rancher about, but so far, no dice.

His feet skid slightly on some leaves, bringing his attention back to the task at hand. Right, he needs to find Twilight. He can worry about driving home the idea of not running off alone when he’s sure the other is still alive. Granted, they didn’t see the black lizalfoes, or anything they think might have been another form of the beast, in this last battle, but it doesn’t take the most powerful of monsters to lay a hero low, especially if they don’t have anyone to watch their backs.

The paw prints change to boot prints with the same seamlessness as they’d become paws at the beginning of the trail, and blood, crimson not black, spatters on the ground in an arc that indicates a swinging blade right where the moblin’s feet shift into a spin to face its pursuer. The trail of blood falls to the left of the trail, which means it could be delt by the left-handed hero or by the opposing monster, but considering the sudden turn, his money is on the rancher being the injured party here.

By habit, his hand falls to his bag, assuring himself he’s got his med kit close at hand.

By the three, these boys could save themselves so much pain if they just covered each others’ asses! Next time they get to the ranch or any place where they can stop for a little, he’s asking Time to help him arrange a training session for these kids. Maybe with their unofficial leader’s support, he can even get the two pups in on the session. As is, he’s sure Wind and four will be willing, and Sky will most definitely be his most valuable asset in teaching them. Good grief, whatever the Knights Academy on Skyloft is teaching, they're doing a great job, because that boy melds seamlessly in with whomever is closest to him!

That may or may not be why he keeps close to the skyloftian, but who can blame him for wanting the assurance of having someone to watch his back when he’s so busy trying to keep an eye on all the others all the time?

Twilight could have used the same, and blood specks along the trail as he goes. The steps become distorted, shuffling over each other in what’s clearly a break from the chase to fight. Here though, seven or eight paces from the initial blood spatter, more footprints join the mix. A bokoblin- no, two of them. The rancher’s steps disappear for a short moment, but with some looking around he finds them again. A flip or a throw landed him behind his foe, but he’s pushed back, heels dragging as they shuffle backwards into the woods as the enemy presses forwards against him.

More tracks join the mix; an ambush.

He grits his teeth, pushing forwards, ignoring, for the most part, the trail of the monsters in favor of following boot prints that press heavily to the dirt at the heel and toe, running, now pursued rather than the pursuer. The rancher will have known to try and limit the area of approach from his foes by darting into the trees. At best, he’d have circled around to pick them off from behind, but the prints don’t indicate as much. The speed of the different monster types will change have changed the tides of the fight though, with the bokoblins moving faster, prints fading out entirely as they likely fell and faded to miasma, leaving behind a moblin trail that continues, joined by more of its kind. He’d estimate at least three, maybe five of the creatures.

Not great odds for one already injured rancher.

He picks up his own pace. There’s no sounds of battle ahead or anywhere close by, not that he can hear. Granted, cannon fire in the war has definitely damaged his hearing enough that he could just be missing it, but he chooses to believe that there’s nothing, if only in the hope that Twilight will somehow be headed back along the trail towards him already, instead of being even further out, still in the middle of a fight.

He doesn’t stumble across the rancher walking along the path though. No, he follows the fight, the footprints, trailing through the trees until there’s nowhere else to go. A wall of earth, steep enough to be a struggle to climb for anyone currently being chased, rises up and the footprints spin about to face those following after. He doesn’t keep track after that though, because the moment he sees fur and brass armor that catches the fading light, he knows his search is done.

“There you are, rancher.”

The urge to steal Time’s thunder and call the other man a pup- not with the affection of the now older man but with all the ire of its original connotation among his own people, is strong, but he resists. That would be considered out of line without context, and he doubts Twilight even knows the source of the nickname he so values from his mentor.

Knowing it means a young person who’s annoying but not yet unbearable, yet, would probably kill some of that magic.

So, he bites his tongue, keeps his impulses to himself, and moves to the side of the younger man, who’s currently slumped against a tree, breath strained but still there as dark eyes, a shade or so darker than Time’s own, flutter slightly with an effort to stay open.

“Cap’n?”

Darker or not, there’s definitely a lot of Time- of Mask, in the rancher’s face, and it makes staying mad with him a bit of a challenge when he’s looking so pathetic. “Got yourself in quite the situation, haven’t you,” he hums, kneeling at the younger’s side and taking his time with a once over. The rancher’s tunic has taken damage, but his concern is where crimson leaks from the tears, not where blades have slashed through only to be halted by chain mail. Yes, the bruising won’t be fun, but his concern is something he can fix, anything that Twilight will actually need help with.

There’s a wince from the other. “Not my intent.”

“Never is,” he unclips the bag from his belt, eyes falling on a nasty looking gash just below the cut off of the chainmail’s sleeves. There are some light scratches over browned features and an injury to the leg that leaks slowly into the earth below, but the rancher’s armor looks to have done its job well.

“The others?”

“Fine.” He keeps his attention on slipping the bracer from his brother’s arm, on unbuckling and sliding away the leather, the underlying glove, and then rolling up the sleeve to get at the injury he needs to treat. Wound care fills his mind, not answers, not talking. That can come once he’s assured that the other is alright. Much as the man drives him mad, he’s still Time’s kid, and still a fellow hero, still a brother, still someone who doesn’t deserve to suffer just because he’s particularly good at being stupid and reckless.

“Wild?”

“Fine.” He repeats, sucking in his cheeks as he sees the damage done without fabric blocking the way. Claws do so much more damage than blades, and the chances of infection are higher too. Not as much as with bites, but it’s still not preferrable.

“The kids?”

He huffs, turning to grab for his kit, looking for anything he might have to quickly clean the wound. “You’d know if you didn’t run away mid battle.”

Hurt crosses sloping features briefly, not for the prodding at the wound site, but from his sharp tongue. Regret stirs briefly at his heart, but like his ire, he pushes it down to keep his head clear and his mind focused on his work as their team’s current medic.

“Yer upset.”

The urge to tell the kid ‘no shit’ is very strong, but he bottles up that too. Instead, he keeps his eyes on the wound, on wiping it down and looking for anything that might have gotten into the cut.

Twilight’s ears flick back, not appreciating having his words ignored. If there’s one thing the rancher is accustomed to, it’s answers when he speaks. Wild always answers, Time too even if it’s not verbal, and the younger ones always respond to. Being met with silence, both verbally and in body language, must be new to him. “Did somethin’ happen?�� And when he still doesn't answer, “Wars, what’s goin’ on?”

“They’re fine, now hush.” It’s a deep cut. Not as bad as the axe wound, but not light by any means either, and it will need stitches. He keeps his needles in a bottle, clean and ready for use, for this reason. Mask used to fuss that it was a waste of a good bottle, and the thought lightens his heart just slightly as he pulls it out and grabs the needed supplies to close the wound in the rancher’s arm.

“No, Wars-” there’s a straining from the body beneath his hands, but Twilight doesn’t successfully pull himself up, and his face flashes white for a moment before he slumps again. It seems the mighty rancher has spent all his strength in fighting alone, nothing left to use to so much as sit up by himself.

“Stay still,” he sighs, pushing down, entirely unnecessarily, against a shoulder. It’s for the sake of the man’s pride, he tells himself, to pretend to play along that twilight can get up on his own right now. “Let me work.”

Work and bottle up his frustrations enough that he can talk afterwards.

Twilight, however, has no such intentions of likewise staying silent. “Captain, what’s goin’ on?”

“I said stay still.”

“Are they hurt?” Blue eyes bleed worry, the same desperation his mentor used to let slip, sometimes still does when it’s his pup in trouble or hurt. “What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Why are you actin’ like this then?”

The urge to growl again rises, and again he shoves it down with pursed lips and clenched teeth, focusing his energy on starting the stitches and hoping the pain of them will be enough to distract the younger man from his line of questioning. It doesn’t work though.

“Wars?”

“Twilight,” his voice snaps without his allowing it, eyes flicking up to meet midnight blue, “I’m trying to focus. Stitches aren’t easy, believe it or not.”

They’re familiar and he’s done more stitches in his life through human flesh and zora scales than his baby sisters have in their needlework projects that Maither gives them. He won’t admit that though, not if it gives him an out from having to talk. Honestly, some days, he really misses having Proxi around to speak for him when he’s stressed. She was always much better at that sort of thing than he was.

Twilight falls quiet at his words though, but he still feels those eyes fixed on him, searching his face even as their gaze is broken with a flinch or a huff of pain as the needle pressed through flesh and pulls the two edges of the cut together. He has to stop a few times to dab away blood and clear the area for the next stitch, but he’s quick about his work. In and out, twisting the thread together to close the wound, moving on to the next stitch and watching as the flesh pulls together again over where blood leaks out.

He's done before he’s ready to talk again, but bandaging is something they’ve all done, and he can’t say that actually takes so much focus as to stop him talking, and Twilight knows it, already pressing again with the questions. “Wars-”

A scoff escapes, puffing hair out of his eyes to clear them, even though having it to hide behind would be much more preferable. “You really are Time’s pup, aren’tcha?”

A tick. “What does that mean?”

He ties off the ends of the linen wrap, tight enough to hold but not so much as to cut off circulation. “You’re a worrier and a fuss pot.”

Heavy brows crease in answer, but Twilight doesn’t actually have a foot to stand on when it comes to opposing his words. Instead, the rancher just stares at him, waiting until Warriors turns his attention to the injured leg, arm finished.

It’s only once he’s gotten a start on treating the cut there (this time from a blade) that the rancher’s voice rises again, guarded and wary. “You’re mad at me,”

He doesn’t answer.

Rather than guess why, Twilight pushes ahead. “I couldn’t let that moblin escape. We don’t know what’s out here, and letting it terrorize a village jist wouldn’t do. You know that, Wars.” When there’s no answer though, the country accent keeps rolling, pitching slightly, straining. “There was a whole ‘nother camp out here, one that might have attacked us in the night!” And then, when still no answer sounds from his lips, “You would have done the same.”

“I would not.” He clips, snipping his thread and briefly glancing over at wide eyes. “I would have attended to my men and then pursued the enemy when we, as a team, were capable of doing so Wandering off on my own is what nearly lost us the war. So, as a rule, I won’t be doing that again unless I absolutely must.”

That shuts the rancher up, recognition dawning in midnight eyes that falter and fall as he turns his attention back to tending wounds.

There’s no more pushing done by either party, and it’s quiet as he works save the hisses and hitches of the younger man’s breath in pain as stitches are laid and bandages wrapped. That done though, the quite is almost overwhelming, even to him, and he finds himself sighing at it, crouching before his pup’s pup and resisting, with a lot of effort, the urge to hook a finger under the other's chin and lift that gaze to meet his own, like he’d done with his own kid what feels like only yesterday. Instead, he keeps his hands to himself, but gentles his gaze all the same. It’s not that hard, not when faced with familiar features drawn up in a soft scowl that, were it Mask, he’d teasingly call a pout. “I’m not mad,” a disbelieving look meets his own at the words, but he pushes his tone a bit firmer with the next ones. “I’m frustrated, but we can work over that later, preferably after we’ve all had dinner and some rest. For now, we should head back to the others, before your cub starts thinking we’ve dropped off the face of the world or something.”

A furrow forms between dark brows, too sharp teeth, wolf teeth he muses to himself, gnawing at the other's cheek lining. It’s a bad habit, and he’s sure the man knows it, but he doesn’t correct it. That’s not his place.

He can guess what’s troubling Twilight though. “Can you stand?”

A huff, a little smile that’s flustered enough he can guess the answer. “Not really.”

He knew it. He doesn’t hold it against the other though, instead, shifting to kneeling at the man’s side, shuffling about as he must before giving a waring of his intent. “I’ll carry you then.”

Alarm flashes clear as day over the rancher’s face. “Cap, I don’t-”

“I’m stronger than I look,” he assures, although it doesn’t seem to do any good. No doubt, twilight’s staring at his slighter frame and remembering his own bulk, but honestly, he’d served for years in the army. If he couldn’t haul an injured soldier any distance, he wouldn’t be worth the rupees he earns.

Getting Twilight up on his back with no help from the weakened rancher or anyone else is a bit of a mess, and there’s some slipping and struggle which the rancher no doubt sees as proof that this is no good, but despite protests, he keeps at it until the other is slung over his back. Twilight is heavy, much more so than the other boys would be, but it’s not his first time hauling an Ordonian to safety, and the bulk of his brother just means he moves a bit slower than he would otherwise.

Twilight’s grip around his neck is weaker than is ideal, but in the long run, it’s probably better that way, because it means his breath doesn't get cut off as he heads back to camp.

Like he said, once they’re there, when they’ve had something to eat, and probably after the rancher downs a potion from his cub’s bag, they’ll need to talk. This time, he will not accept having them change the subject or redirect. This time they will discuss going off alone.

After though. After they’ve had time to catch their breath. And he supposes, shaking his head, after Twilight wakes up again from the doze he’s apparently fallen into.

Good grief, the man even snores as loud as his mentor!

#asks and answers #linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu warriors #lu twilight #febuwhump2024 #febuwhump #ketto writes #dad warriors #he is not ready to be a grandpa guys #but is very weak to the puppy children in this group #he will not admit it #but he is #yes i am referencing the update like a madwoman #it's free warriors and twi angst though!#can you blame me?

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hero-of-the-wolf · 4 months

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So here's a thing me and @crazylittlejester have been working on. Enjoy :)

Summary: After a difficult journey during the day full of obstacles and hard battles, Time finds himself trapped repeating the same battle over and over again. He has no choice, if he wants to save his brothers. However every time he uses his ocarina to reverse fate, he finds the price of saving his lost companion is the life of another.

or: Time loop fic where everyone keeps dying and Time is the only one who can save them all.

Someone was talking.

Already?

Time sighed, resigning himself to wakefulness and opening his eye. Warriors was leaning over him, his hand already resting on his shoulder.

“It’s your turn for watch.”

Right.

Time sat up with a groan. It felt like no time at all had passed since they’d first set up camp. And before then, they’d been stuck in a grueling battle that had burned through most of their supplies. It had been a long day.

He glanced over to see Warriors smirking at him. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” The captain walked over to his own bed roll, no doubt excited at the prospect of a good night’s rest. “I was just thinking about how much ‘old man’ suits you, is all. I swear I could hear every bone in your body pop.”

Time rolled his eye, even though he knew Warriors couldn’t see it. “Very funny.”

“Thanks, I try.” Warriors flopped down on his roll dramatically with a sigh. “How are you doing, by the way?”

Time hummed at that. “I’m sure we’ve all had worse battles.”

“You’re not answering my question, Sprite.”

“I’m fine. Truly.” He sat down on the log Warriors had previously been sitting on. “We'll head to the nearest town to pick up some more supplies in the morning. Hyrule mentioned that we should be able to reach one by the end of the day.”

Warriors hummed in response. He fell silent after that, no doubt already giving in to his exhaustion. Good. He needed the rest. Time knew his shoulder was still bothering him, though the captain would never admit it.

He glanced up at the sky, noting the stars. They weren’t as bright here as they were at home, but they were beautiful all the same. The moon was out too, an almost sinister looking sliver of a smile. Time shook his head at the memories of a different moon with a sinister face and turned his attention to the fire in front of him. It was low already, but he was sure that it would last until morning. He took in a deep breath, savoring the peace that only being this deep in nature could bring.

A bokoblin’s horn reverberated through the previously still night air, making him jump.

“Everyone, up!” He shouted, springing to his feet. His sword was already in his hand. There was no time to put on his armor. The monsters were already pouring into the clearing.

Everyone scrambled to their feet, grabbing their weapons. There wasn’t even time to reach their shields. Time was lucky enough to have had an extra precious few seconds to grab his.

He felt Warriors’ back press against his own. He felt far too exposed without his armor. All of them did. But Warriors wasn’t afraid. He was annoyed.

“I can’t believe this,” he grumbled. “I got like, what, five minutes of sleep? Couldn’t they have waited until morning??”

Time's lips twitched up at that, despite their unfortunate circumstances. The poor captain had taken first watch. He’d gotten basically no sleep since their earlier battle, and he was prepared to make it everyone else's problem.

Time pressed harder against him, dodging the blow of an incoming lizalfos, and Warriors’ whining switched to complaining about his still sore shoulder.

Everything passed in a blur after that. Once the last monster was felled, Time hurried to do a headcount. They’d been at a serious disadvantage. He had faith in his boys, but he needed to make sure everyone was okay and accounted for.

Warriors was next to him, dusting himself off.

Twilight was helping Four back up to his feet.

Sky was sitting on the ground, looking winded but otherwise okay.

Hyrule and Legend were chatting off to the side.

That left….

“Has anyone seen Wild and Wind?”

Everyone’s attention shifted to him at that.

“I thought that they were with you,” Twilight frowned.

“I thought that they were with you,” Legend retorted.

“The last I saw them, they were over… there.”

Time looked where Sky was pointing. It was still far too dark to see clearly, so he cautiously approached, jerking to a stop when his foot almost slipped off the edge of a sheer drop. His heart plummeted straight down to his boots.

“They must have fallen down.”

The cliff was steep, but Time managed to find his way down to a sizeable ledge. The aftermath of a battle was strewn everywhere. They must not have been the only ones who had fallen. Warriors followed close behind, dropping down next to him.

By the time Time found them their bodies were still warm.

He fell to his knees, desperately checking for any sign of life. He was too late. Too slow. He—

From behind him, Warriors came to a sudden stop. A horrible keening sound escaped him, one that would haunt Time for the rest of his days. He stumbled to his side and drew the two younger boys into his arms. Time forced himself to his feet and stepped back. Almost on instinct, his hand reached down and clasped his ocarina. He could still fix this.

“Captain… it’ll be okay.”

Warriors looked up at him, distraught. Even after a whole war of losing people, the grief of death was something nobody could ever get used to. Not even the captain. “How can you say that? This- This isn’t okay.”

Time smiled at him sadly and raised the ocarina to his lips.

The song was one he knew all too well. The rhythm of time slowed to a stop, then started reversing. Time went as far back as he could, before ending the song and breaking into a run. He knew where they were now. He could get to them in time.

The ledge they’d fallen down to was hard to see from up top in the predawn darkness, but he knew exactly where to go. When had they even fallen? Everything had happened so fast. He climbed down as quickly as he dared. He needed to be faster.

Wild and Wind were surrounded by monsters. Wild was already hunched over, clutching at a red stain on his side that was rapidly growing.

Time almost lost his grip when Wind yelled in pain and collapsed. No.

He dropped down and unsheathed his sword, swinging it in a wide arc. The three lizalfos in front of him were cut down before they could even blink, let alone jump out of the way. A large black moblin rounded on him next. He parried its spear and stabbed it straight in the gut. He didn't have time for this.

“Tell me about your island, Sailor,” Wild’s voice, as quiet as it was, seemed to echo in his skull. Those were dying words. But he was so close!

Everything else drowned out but the sword in his hands and the words in his ears.

“It’s beautiful,” Wind whispered. “There’s a fairy fountain at the top… top of the mountain, y’know. And a bridge… bridge’s broken, though. And my sister… and grandma….”

Another moblin.

“Champion?”

Two bokoblins.

“I’m here, kid.”

“Not a kid,” Wind rasped. The fire in his voice was fading fast. They were running out of time.

Only a lowly bokoblin was left, standing between him and his fallen brothers. Time glowered at it, leveling his sword.

Nothing was going to stand between him and his brothers. He swore to Hylia that he wouldn’t let this be the end for them.

The bokoblin charged. A fatal mistake. Time easily deflected its blow with his sword, twisting around to stab it in the back.

The last monster fell. Time sank to his knees at his boys’ side again, heaving a sigh of relief. He reached into his pouch with trembling fingers, grabbing the first bottle he could find and pulling it out. The fairy flew out without delay and circled around the two boys. Their wounds disappeared. Like none of it had ever even happened.

Wild sat up, a smile already on his face. “Hey, old man.”

Wind was still clutched in his arms, blinking up at them both. Then he smiled, too. “Took ya long enough.”

Time closed his eye, just for a moment. They were okay.

He didn’t really have the time, but he couldn’t stop himself from clapping a firm hand on both their shoulders, checking them both over with his eye for any lingering injuries before getting up from where he was crouched in front of them. Sounds of clanging swords and frustrated shouts came from overhead where the others were, and Time knew he had to get himself and the boys up there to help as soon as possible.

Wild was easiest to help back up over the ledge. The kid was terrifyingly gifted at scaling up cliffs, and only needed a bit of a boost from Time to help him get up there faster than he could have on his own. The second the champion completely disappeared over the edge and back onto the cliff top, Time turned to Wind, locking his fingers together to provide a hopefully steady foot hold.

“Ready, kid?”

Wind nodded sharply, a determined look on his face, before placing his small boot in Time’s hand and reaching up towards where Wild’s hand was extended down for him to grab. Time helped shove him up as far as he could, supporting the little pirate’s weight as much as he was able to until Wild got a firm enough grip to haul him back to safety.

Unfortunately for Time, there was no way the two younger heroes would be able to pull him up as well. The ledge was high enough that he couldn’t get a firm grip by jumping for it, not that he wanted to risk falling to his death should he lose his footing, and it was too dark to properly see how much space he had.

Warriors’s face poked over the edge, giving him a familiar crooked grin.

“Well you’ve gotten yourself rather stuck, Sprite,” his brother teased, and Time couldn’t help but instinctively cross his arms over his chest and glare up at the captain in defiance at the tone in his voice. It wasn’t his fault he’d gotten trapped down here, he was saving Wind and Wild’s lives!

The image of their bodies flashed across his mind and his expression dropped as he felt his breath catch in his chest.

He forced himself to shake his head to free himself from the sight of a fate that no longer existed.

Warriors’s hand reached down just low enough for Time to grab when he ran and jumped for it, and there was a moment when his hand clasped around his brother’s where he was terrified his weight would drag them both down over the edge, but a second pair of hands reached down and grabbed his forearm, helping the captain pull him up.

Time allowed himself five seconds to pant in the grass on his back before forcing himself to sit up, giving Sky a grateful nod for helping him before taking Warriors’s offered hand and letting his brother drag him to his feet. He looked around for Wind and Wild, squinting to make out their shapes in the dark, and spotted them with swords raised, helping Legend fight off a large group of Lizalfos. They were moving okay, they were breathing, they were fine.

He saved them, and now he had to help the others finish this battle.

They could do it, they’d done it a hundred times already. There was nothing even special about this group of monsters, they were all going to be just fine.

He hated that he hadn’t been able to go back far enough to give them enough time to put their armor on before the battle started. Time couldn’t help the surge of anxiety that blossomed when he felt Warriors’s spine press into his back when the captain’s shoulders met his, unprotected from his usual amount of armor. His brother was too vulnerable like this, they were all too vulnerable like this.

The captain groaned when Time’s shoulder slid against his.

“You okay?” He asked quickly, shifting so he wasn’t leaning too much on his brother. Warriors’s shoulder had been dislocated earlier in the day during the previous battle, and while he’d had a red potion or two shoved down his throat, Time had no doubt it was probably still sore.

“No, I’m not okay,” the captain whined, and he didn’t have to be facing him for Time to know with certainty there was a pout on Warriors’s face. “Can a man not sleep for more than five minutes without having something happen to him?? Hylia!!”

“What has the world come to?” Time sighed, overdoing it a little on the sadness he forced into his voice.

Warriors pushed against his back roughly in retaliation, grumbling something under his breath that he couldn’t hear.

They worked together to beat back the monsters that had surrounded them, and Time tried to focus on his brother behind him instead of letting his mind drift back to Wind and Wild’s bodies. Each bokoblin he cut down made him feel further and further from what he’d just seen, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of shock he’d felt.

Life was a very fragile thing. None of them were going to live forever, but those two were just kids. This was not their place to die.

“We’re so fucked, why are there so many of them??” Warriors sighed, and Time couldn’t find his voice to agree with him. Not after what he just saw. Not after what he’d erased. He refused to believe they were ‘fucked’.

He had a second chance, he wasn’t going to let anyone die, not this time. He’d already healed Wind and Wild, he just needed to keep an eye on them and all the others and they’d pull through as they always did.

Something swooped down towards their heads that Time couldn’t quite make out in the dark, and while he’d managed to duck out of its path, the thing hit Warriors square in the face.

“What the fuck!!” The captain screamed. “What was that?!”

“Keese!” Hyrule shouted from somewhere to Time’s left. He couldn’t spare a second to look over at the traveler, he was too busy trying to defend both him and his temporarily stunned brother.

“Why!!”

“Fuck you mean, ‘why’??” Legend yelled.

Time swatted at the damned keese with his shield when it swooped down at his head again.

“Just be glad you didn’t get hit by a swarm of them!” Hyrule laughed. “That one must not be from this era, my keese never travel alone!”

It took Warriors an embarrassing number of tries to cut it down, and by the time he had, Time had mostly cleared out the bokoblins around them. He took a moment to breathe and try to spot Wind and Wild in all the chaos.

“Look out!” Twilight screamed, and Time ducked, shoving Warriors out of the way as well when an axe went flying overhead, glinting in the light of the moon. Thankfully it embedded itself in a nearby tree as opposed to any of the boys.

“Thanks, goat boy!” The captain called back, brushing himself off as he got up, holding out a hand to help up Time.

He missed the concerned look Warriors gave him as he steadied Time on his feet, he was too busy looking around the clearing, counting seven hylian heads still up and moving. Once sure everyone was safe he couldn’t help but feel anger towards himself for being so distracted that he’d almost allowed himself and Warriors to get hit by a flying axe.

“Hey, everything okay?” His brother asked, kicking a bokoblin he didn’t recognize down when it waddled a little too close, bringing his sword straight down into it and ending the little creature. “You didn’t hit your head on the way down to get Wind and Wild, did you?”

Time didn’t have a chance to open his mouth before Warriors grabbed his chin and started moving his face around to check for cuts or marks where he might have been hit.

He swatted away the captain’s hands, ignoring the way Warriors raised an eyebrow at him and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“No, I’m fine,” he told him, and he meant it. He was fine, so were Wild and Wind, and so were all the others. He just had to get out of his own head and focus, this was no time or place for mistakes.

“Are you sure?” Warriors questioned, because of course he wouldn’t just drop it. “You seem really distracted and a bit out of it.”

“I’m fine,” Time repeated with an annoyed huff. He could argue with his brother later, right now he had to focus on killing monsters.

He got lucky when a lizalfos jumped down on the other side of the captain, freeing him from whatever lecture on hiding injuries Warriors was no doubt prepping to give him. It didn’t take long to deal with the monster, and in all the chaos it was quite easy for Time to slip away to another side of the clearing.

He headed over towards Four, who was singled out by a group of bokoblins. The poor young man was doing his best, but there was no one near him to help at all, and from what Time could see through the darkness, no one else was in immediate need of assistance.

“Oh Hylia, thanks,” Four wheezed when Time was able to take out a huge wave of bokoblins in one swing with his significantly larger sword.

“Any time,” he said quickly, swinging again, this time in a large arc right over Four’s head when the younger hero ducked.

Legend came sprinting past with an enraged cry, chasing after a moblin that kept bouncing out of the way of his swings.

“Fucker!!” He screamed when he missed again.

Time snorted, taking a moment to check on Wind and Wild one more time. They were a terrifying duo, with Wild dancing about and weaving between the monsters, shoving them right into Wind’s sword. Every time they successfully got another one, the pirate let out an evil little cackle, the faint light making his eyes sparkle.

They were fine, and the number of monsters was finally getting smaller as less and less of them swarmed into the clearing.

His mistake had been allowing himself less than a second to believe that they were all going to be fine.

He hadn’t even seen it happen, his back was turned, all he’d heard was a sickening crack followed by Legend’s awful scream. He felt his breath catch in his throat but he couldn’t hear anything besides that awful sound the vet was making and his own pounding heartbeat. He knew what he was going to see when he turned, he knew, and he didn’t want to look, but he couldn’t stop himself. Time whipped around to look at them, so quickly that he felt nauseous, although that might have been because of the angle Four’s neck had been twisted at, or the way his lifeless eyes were still staring up at the sky, or the horrible way his dead body was sprawled in the grass.

Time didn’t waste a second, he couldn’t bear the sight of one of his dead brothers a second longer. With trembling hands he brought the ocarina to his lips and began to play as warm tears ran down his face.

READ THE REST ON AO3!!! :)

#lu time #lu warriors #lu twilight #lu wild #lu wind #lu four #lu sky #lu legend #lu hyrule #lu chain #linked universe fanfiction #LU fanfiction #linked universe #LU #it was an honor to write this with you Jes 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡#may we commit many more crimes together in the future :3 #emmie writes #with a friend :)

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occasionallyprosie · 4 months

Text

"Gone Like The Wind"

Lana is desperate, the war has been going on for a while and she needed someone good. Someone who could help Link beat not just Cia, but also Ganondorf and Volga and all of them. Who better than the Hero of Legend who killed Ganon four times? Wait a second--That's not the hero, that's a merchant. Second try, surely this time--nope, that's a girl from an island. Third time is the charm, right? Wind saw that portal forming and he knew it was after his brother. There was no way he was letting it have him. TLDR: Wind gets yoinked into the War of Eras during the Linked Universe adventure. This results in some emotional struggles, some mischief, found family, and a lot of violence.

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Warnings: Graphic Violence, Implied Attempted Non-Con (Cia and Warriors), Swearing

----

Legend was having a very normal day, thank you. Nothing insane or abnormally absurd (aside from Wild deciding to try and test the group's spice tolerance for literally no reason this time, what the heck, Champion) happened, no ambushes or anything.

They were literally just walking when a portal--a different one than normal, blue and bright and not quite divine in nature, but powerful--tried to rip open.

Wind and Legend had been at the back, and both had spotted the portal. Legend went for his sword on instinct, but Wind shoved him just as the portal lunged at them.

Someone cried out. The portal was gone as quickly as it had formed and Wind with it.

Legend breathed an islander curse, one taught to him by their now missing hero and one he got scolded for saying by a red haired, bird-loving girl.

"What was that?!" Wild demanded, his voice higher than usual.

"Sailor?" Twilight called. As if that wasn't a portal filled to the brim with pure temporal magic, purer than Nayru's Harp.

Legend, still on the ground from getting shoved, stared at the place Wind had been not seconds ago.

He never thought he'd get angry at the protectiveness Wind displayed over him--it was understandable, he had been younger than him when they first met and even if he was older now by about three years, Wind was still his big brother in a way--but in that moment he felt it. Because of that, Wind had been taken alone. At the very least they'd both would've been taken or just Legend.

"You alright, Kit?" Time asked while Warriors tried to calm Twilight, who grew hysterical.

"Y-Yeah," he forced out, taking the offered hand to stand. "Just--" he cursed again, "I wasn't expecting that."

"To be pushed out of the way, or the... ambush?" Time asked, if Legend wasn't still staring at the spot Wind had been he would've noticed the worried look he was given.

"Both, honestly... he doesn't usually do that."

"Sailor, can you hear me?" Wild shook his slate, holding it to the sky to try and get a signal. "Sailor? Link?"

"LINK!" Four was yelling, Twilight transforming and running into the woods, Four giving chase and calling out.

Sky and Hyrule disappeared another way, Wild following them after only a moment.

Wind hadn't been expecting to see a portal--one he had never seen before--appear behind him and Legend. But some part of him told him that it was after his little (older) brother.

He shoved Legend just before the portal tried to snatch him, taking him instead.

It was disorienting, dizzying, and far worse than any of the other portals he had gone through. He internally apologized for every time he complained about any method of transportation, this was worse than taking tornadoes across the Great Sea.

He slammed into the ground and couldn't help but groan into his teeth, keeping silent as he tried to reorient his mind and get aware of his surroundings.

The ground was cold and hard--stone--and he could hear the chittering of bokoblins. He dazedly looked up, staying low and realizing where he was roughly.

A storage room, the light coming from the door meant it was an outdoor storage room, or one connected to a courtyard. Beside him was an overturned, empty barrel.

He heard footsteps, heavy and imbalanced, monster, approach and he quickly scrambled and pulled the barrel over himself. He needed to get a complete grip of himself before he fought if he wanted a good outcome. He could fight dizzy, hell, he has fought concussed before, but it wasn't his favorite thing to do.

Soon enough, he heard the door shut again and the footsteps fade, still hearing the chittering and snarls of monsters.

"Okay," he breathed. He internally thanked the goddesses or whatever it was that Legend and Twilight usually revered for not letting whatever it was that took him get a second try and drop any of his brothers on him.

He had all his supplies, he had a fairy and a red potion healing wise, and a week's rations for two people in case he was separated from Wild and needed food. He had his weapons, he could handle it, he'd be fine.

He had forged his hero's spirit, he could handle anything the world threw at him and he knew it. Besides, sneaking around in a barrel was familiar enough.

He managed to sneak out of the storage room--the door turned out to be a push/pull door and not needing a knob, lucky him--and just froze whenever he heard a monster nearby.

Then he heard distant battle. He rolled his eyes and after getting his balance standing, he shoved the barrel off.

He heard rapid footsteps and turned quickly.

A woman--scary woman, tall, easily taller than Time--with a huge blade stood there. One look at her and he knew she was dangerous, her eyes promised that, and she readied her blade toward him. She had the same symbol that Wild had on his slate, on her face.

He quickly drew the Phantom Sword and Hero's Shield.

There were monsters all around, but they didn't immediately attack. Wind figured that meant this woman was in charge of them. Wild had mentioned that there were some people who used to be Sheikah who betrayed Hyrule and became servants of Ganondorf (or was it Ganon?), he would guess this woman was one of them.

She attacked him first, and she was fast but extremely powerful. Wind yelped, falling back on his feet and fending off powerful, violent, reverberating blows that made his spinning head infinitely worse.

She dented his shield.

Wind evaded her and fought back, focusing on his evasive attacks and slashing at her whenever he could.

He could see her flagging, but he had a feeling he couldn't win this one.

No. He couldn't risk that. He had to get back to his brothers, he had to make sure--

He slammed into the wall as her blade hit his shield and threw him back. She came at him just as quickly as Warriors could lunge right after an attack. He barely blocked his skull in time, only to get hit in the head with his own shield.

His shield cracked. He rolled on the ground, pain flaring through his bruised body.

He couldn't move, he tried but that hit to his head was awful. He couldn't get to his feet.

Damnit, get up, Link! Get up!

He could hear the screeches of the monsters, bokos he's pretty sure, and the sounds of battle echoed. He got to a knee but swayed and almost collapsed again.

It's okay. Twilight's voice rang in his head. Jus' breathe, Ocean. Head injuries are bad, ya can't always push pass them.

He needed to this time. He was dead if he didn't. Better or worse, he could be captured. He had to push past it!

Black pressed at the edges of his vision.

A weight settled on his shoulder and he froze a whole moment late, seeing the weapon he had been fending off moments before.

"Stand down." The woman's voice sounded underwater.

He grabbed his sword, shaking and he tried to channel his Triforce. Legend said it would help them if they used it.

He could feel its strength flare through him, giving him the briefest moment of clarity and stability.

He slashed at her, throwing himself forward at the same time as she jumped back. She dodged his first slash, but had to block his second.

Be fast, begin your next move while you are doing your current one. Warriors' advice rang through his head, his Triforce flared once more as he cut the woman's side.

She landed one more hit and sent him flying across the stone courtyard.

He was out before he hit the ground.

Quiet chatter, wary sounds, distant grinding and warm laughter.

His body felt heavy, but not hurt. Something scratchy was over him, he felt it on his arms and his hands.

When he pried his eyes open, the soft light of a candlelit lantern greeted him. It took him a moment to adjust and focus, seeing multiple other beds, most of them occupied, and the woman who he fought talking with someone in a white tunic and chain mail armor beneath it. Beside her was...

"Cap'n," he murmured, not even loud enough to travel to them. None of them heard him, clearly, but he did get a better look.

That wasn't Warriors. That was a seventeen year old soldier, it looked like Warriors sure, but distinctly younger, face completely impassive and blank, lacking the scar along his jaw that Wind was familiar with.

Time travel. Wars' quest involved a lot of time travel and people displaced from their times.

He let out a soft breath. If that was where and when he was, he would be fine. He just had to convince them he wasn't against them, and considering the cuff around his left wrist, they didn't know that.

He sat up, noting his head didn't hurt anymore. They healed him, nice.

"You know," he spoke up, keeping his voice light enough that it wouldn't bother the injured soldiers sleeping around the tent, "it's rude to ignore your guests."

The woman who had beat him up turned and glared at him, mini Warriors gave a confused look, and the medic made a surprised noise.

"Who said you were a guest?" The woman asked.

"I did," he replied, grinning at them as he propped his chin on his fist. "Considering someone here snatched me from my time, and considering you attacked me without reason, I'd say that gives me at minimum guest status. How's the war going?"

They stared at him.

"If you truly are displaced in time," the woman said lowly, eyes narrowing. "You would not know of the war."

Wind gave her a wry smirk. "But I do. How about this? My name's Link and I'm the Hero of Winds." He looked at Mini Wars. "I know that my story is still told in this era."

They stared at him.

"Captain," the woman looked at Mini Wars, "bring Lana here, and the kid, he said he could sense your shared spirits?"

Mini Wars nodded and Wind only just noticed the fairy beside him.

"Yes, General," the fairy said and Mini Wars left the tent. The woman approached Wind and he met her eyes unflinchingly.

"You are a skilled fighter," she said. "You fight like a Sheikah."

"I fight like my older brother, who was trained by a Sheikah, the royal army, and someone else he met when he was younger."

He studied her, she was strong, he experienced that firsthand. If she was acknowledging his skill after fighting him concussed, he wondered if he could win in a fair fight. Unlikely, but he'd do better.

"You've experienced time travel before," she stated.

He nodded. "Yeah, and I'll tell you that your portals fucking suck. Even a lizard could do better."

"Excuse me?!" A woman with bright blue hair had just entered the tent. "My portals do not suck!"

"Lady Lana--"

"Yea, they do." Wind argued, noticing a syringe on the table beside him. "Your portals are worse than flying across the ocean on a fucking tornado."

She made an affronted noise, the tent door swished aside as Mini Wars reentered with... a kid.

At first glance, he was reminded of Apple. Second glance, the kid couldn't have looked less like his little brother. Brighter hair, same shade and style's as Time's, a familiar green cap but also a yellow mask on the side of his head... a mask that Time had shown them before. He looked young, younger than Wind even, but his eyes...

He was tired, he had experienced a lot and his confident stance, his dangerous, angry eyes, the way he met Wind's eyes...

"He doesn't have it," the kid declared. "He doesn't have our spirit."

"Of course I don't," he spoke up, gaining their attention again. He didn't look away from the kid's eyes. "You have it. I don't need your special little spirit to be a hero, I forged my own. I made myself the hero when nobody else could."

He was honestly surprised nobody noticed, but he held up his unlocked, picked cuff that no longer clasped around his wrist.

"So, why don’t we talk about how I can help you guys in this war of yours, and you can make sure I get back right to the place and time I left when it's over. I was a bit busy."

"So you are not the famed Hero of Legend?" Lana asked him when they finally sat down to have an actually civil conversation. "The hero who slayed Ganon multiple times?"

"No, but we've met and if you try to drag him into this then we will have a problem," Wind warned her, glaring.

"We are seeking additional support and power," Lana argued.

"And you got me, try and touch my brothers and we'll actually start having problems," Wind retorted, standing from his chair.

Lana glared at him. "Fine." She held her hands up. "You are a renowned hero, I suppose you will suffice... even if you are young."

"I killed Ganondorf by driving my sword through his skull," Wind spat. "I can handle a war."

"If you say so," she sighed. "It has already been ongoing for a year."

Wind hummed. "Good thing I'm a fast learner."

The war apparently picked up soon after Wind arrived. Battles taking place near daily, monsters sieging military camps and towns. Wind found himself fighting beside Link and Mask, who he internally dubbed Mini Wars and Mini Time.

Both were skilled, Mask more than Link, but Link was... He needed help. After a particularly brutal battle not a week after Wind arrived--he hadn't had any time to talk to anyone, he had seen Legend's merchant friend, a familiar wolf who gave him a knowing look--he decided to make Link learn how to fight faster.

He was surprised Impa hadn't taught him it by now, but she seemed busy and everything Link did screamed 'soldier' in a way Wild did on bad days.

"You move too slow," he told Link after they left Mask in the medical wing.

Link flinched, it was hard to notice but Wind could read Legend and Time and compared to them, this kid was as obvious as Aryll.

"You fight like a soldier," Wind corrected before Proxi could yell at him for Link. "You fight like you have people at your side, giving blows when you’re planning your next move."

He frowned.

"Link is a soldier," Proxi said, fluttering in front of Wind scoldingly.

Wind rolled his eyes. "Yes, he is. But the thing is, he's expected to be a hero." He met Link's eyes. "People won't think to fight beside you and cover your mistakes." Sky had said that it was hard to adjust when he began to fight with the other knights. "You have to cover yourself, you have to follow up yourself."

There was a deep rooted sadness, a plea that Wind couldn't decipher in his eyes, and Link nodded.

"How?" Proxi asked.

Wind thought about it and recalled the clearing outside the camp.

"We'll train," he said. He recalled what Warriors had told him once. "You can't fight and expect to think at the same time, especially when you fight alone. You have to always be moving." He headed for the clearing, close enough to camp they weren't missing, but far enough nobody should see them. "My older brother taught me how to fight like a Sheikah," he informed them, "so I'll show you how to do the same, and then we'll see if Impa can help us get better."

"Us?" Proxi asked.

"Eh, I don’t mind learning more."

Between battles, Link--through Proxi--asked Wind to train more, especially after bad battles. Mask started following and throw in in advice, but neither Wind nor Link fought with heavy, two handed weapons like Mask did. So his advice wasn't bad, just didn't go very far.

Wind found himself missing his brothers fast. It was like Hytopia all over again, but this time he had them right there... they just didn't know him yet.

He slipped away from the camp at the end of the second week in this war and ten consecutive battles, and he found a spot to just sit.

He found himself humming, not quite singing but the wind sang with him. Trees rustling to the tune.

He felt someone disturb the breeze and looked over to see Wolfie padding over.

"Hey, Forest," he murmured. Wolfie lowered himself beside him. "Can't change back?"

He boofed.

"Good," he sighed. "I know you hate that... goddesses, when are you? Have you met the captain before?"

Wolfie bobbed his head in a nod.

"Okay, have you finished that quest?"

Wolfie boofed softly.

Wind hummed. "You’re older then... are you even displaced? You live until the Champion's era, right?"

Wolfie gave him a look and Wind wasn't sure how off he was.

"So Midna's displaced. Does she think you’re displaced?"

Wolfie nodded again.

"That must suck ass," Wind laughed, he knew it came out bitter but oh well, he couldn't keep face at the moment. His brother was doomed to live millennia beyond his time, they didn't even know if he'd finally rest after Wild, just that he would be there until him.

They fell silent and he messed with the winds, letting a soft song that he used to hear Wild hum all the time ring through the trees and between the branches and grass.

He buried his face against his knees, just trying to stop thinking. The worst part was that he was hardly anytime into this thing. Warriors said once the war had gone on three years. Time said it was the shortest three years of his life, which both Four and Legend had gotten upset over because how could a stretch of time take longer or shorter than another?

He was two weeks into this, and he was tired. He wanted his brothers back but they were right there.

The wind that brushed over Wolfie suddenly ran into something else. Wind didn't get the chance to look up before he was pulled into strong arms.

"I can't stay like this long, Sailor," Twilight murmured quietly. "They can't know 'bout me."

He wanted to cry. "I want to go back."

"I know, it'll be okay though," Twilight promised. "I'm right here, an' so's the Captain and the Old Man."

Wind laughed. "Ain't much of an old man, isn't he?"

"No, never really has been," Twilight said and Wind was certain there was something deeper to his words. "Alright. Listen to me, Ocean." Wind met his eyes and noticed the blue was much, much sharper than before. "Yer a hero, if you could remake the Triforce you can win a war." He laughed a bit. "You can train our Cap'n into the warrior we meet."

Wind swallowed and nodded.

"I'm gonna to change back now, an' I'm gonna go back to Midna, she ain't gonna be happy I left in the first place, but you come find me if you need me... I think ya'll be fine though."

Wind hugged him one more time before he transformed back into Wolfie.

"Link!" He jumped and saw Mask climbing over a log from the camp. He was glaring at him. "What are you doing out here?"

Wind looked to Twilight, but he was gone, he had disappeared.

"Just..." Wind trailed off. "Thinking."

Mask scoffed. "Right. Well the big Link wants to talk to you about you being here."

He tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"You’re what, fourteen?"

Wind nodded.

"It's not legal to do anything as a kid here," Mask spat, "anything important at least. He's eighteen, almost nineteen. He had to fucking adopt me when I showed up so I could legally help in this stupid, fucking war that dragged me from my time. I'm guessing that's what he's going to do with you, or if you don’t like him, someone else from here and an adult will need to or you have to go to some orphanage 'til the war's over."

Wind stared, in part of what he said and in part of what he said. "That's--sorry, aren't you too young to be cursing?" That's what Time always told him.

"Fuck off. I'm older than I look," Mask snapped. "Look, three days can very easily become three years, that's all I got to say on that."

Wind blinked, then he shrugged. "Fair enough. But either way, their laws on kids is utter bullshit. I've fought Ganondorf, I killed Ganondorf, I sailed across the entire ocean when I was twelve!"

"And I've killed Ganondorf twice, and I fought the moon," Mask said bluntly, "they don’t care."

He groaned. "Fine. Fine! If it makes things easier, I don't mind the Captain adopting me."

Mask made a face--he must get better at controlling his face in the future--and Wind could tell he didn't like that.

He frowned. "Unless you don’t like that."

"I didn't say I did, fucking--"

"You didn't need to." Wind realized even if he claimed to be older than he looked, he was definitely still a kid. "Do we need to go back now?"

"No..."

"Why don’t you join me then?" Wind gestured to the forest floor beside him. "I was listening to music."

"What music?"

Wind grinned. "Listen."

He twitched his fingers, he didn't need the Wind Waker anymore to control the winds, it was a part of him. Soon, the wind sang around them. A song that Time taught him when he pestered the old man into playing his ocarina--the wooden one, the non-magic one--reverberated around him.

Mask froze, eyes widening as he looked up and listened to the upbeat song. The forest itself seemed to like it. Wind had noticed this particular song did well in forests.

"How..." Mask croaked. "What..."

"My older brother taught me," Wind said and Mask snapped his head toward him. Wind gave him a smile. "He said it's a gate to the past... a past we can't return to, but that doesn't mean it has to be sad, there's a future we can go to instead."

Mask was trembling a bit, his hand rested on his pouch. "Can you make it keep playing?"

Wind smiled and nodded. Mask sat down beside him and just listened.

"Do you know any other songs?" Mask asked, quiet as if he feared disturbing the song that was literally in the airs

Wind orchestrated with his fingers, small, imperceptible movements.

The song changed to the one Tetra taught him, a song she only vaguely remembered as the one her mother sang to her. He learned the whole thing from Legend.

"How... How do you know this one?" Mask asked.

"My best friend taught it to me," he said. "She only knows part of it, her mom sang it to her as a lullaby but she died and now my friend can't remember the whole thing anymore. My little brother knows the whole thing though, he taught me the rest."

"Little brother? How many do you have?"

"Ah, technically I only have a little sister. Blood-wise at least." He smiled up at the sky, thinking of Aryll and teaching her those constellations that shone overhead. "But I've got eight brothers, most older, one of them was younger than me but time travel made him older, he's still my little brother though. I'm not related to them though."

Mask nodded. "So the little brother is who taught you this song?"

"Yeah."

"Is he a prince? Because this song is for the royal family. Ima guess your best friend is your Zelda, we found out both Captain Link and I have a Zelda."

Wind smiled. "Her name is Tetra, actually, but yeah she's my Zelda. As for him... I don't know, if he is, he never told me. He did mention having a sister though."

"Maybe you should've asked," Mask said. "If he is... well, at least I know it's not completely impossible for the goddess to have sons."

Wind had no clue what he meant by that but he left it alone.

The song kept playing through the air, and a moment later, Wind felt Mask fall asleep against his shoulder. He couldn't help but smile softly, brushing curtain bangs aside.

He knew Mask would look like the little kid he clearly was if he just stopped scowling.

He felt someone draw near and he lightened their footsteps to force them to be quieter, and reached for his sword in case it wasn't someone he could trust.

Wolfie entered, ridden by Midna, followed by Link.

"There--"

"Shh," Wind hissed. Midna almost argued but fell quiet when she saw Mask asleep.

Link, who Wind had only seen tense and firm since they... met, lost all tension in his shoulders as he approached.

"He's fine," Wind whisper before Proxi could say a word. "I was playing some tunes and I guess the lullabies were too good."

"Tunes?" Link repeated, smiling softly and Wind startled a bit at hearing his voice. "Odd word. Suits you."

He stared at him for only a moment before smiling. "Thanks... I guess." He glanced at Mask, then at Link. "I think you'll have better luck taking him to bed than I will."

Link hummed. "Thank you, Tune."

Tune. He liked that.

"It's nothing," he promised quietly. "Kid needs his sleep."

Link laughed quietly. He reached over and Tune clapped silently when he managed to pick up Mask without waking the kid. Link rolled his eyes and lightly kicked him.

"Come on," he whispered, "you need sleep too."

Tune grinned at him and bounced up to his feet. He was about to retort when Mask shifted in Link's arms. They froze.

Tune mimed zipping his lips shut and Link nodded. They left the clearing and Tune flicked his fingers to bring the lullaby back to the air, Midna and Wolfie followed them while Proxi settled on Link's head.

Midna floated around Link to coo mockingly at Mask, he gave her a pointed look. Tune smiled softly as Proxi hissed warnings at Midna.

He startled when Wolfie nosed his hand. Then he just smiled and pet his head for a second, not enough to be petting him, but as an acknowledgment.

He wasn't alone. He had his brothers here. Some a bit younger--some a lot younger, and some much, much older, but they were still his brothers.

He wondered how long he'd be gone from the quest... he wondered if he'd ever return.

Warriors glared at the fire after everyone gathered again. They spent the whole day searching on the off chance that Wind had only been displaced in space and not time.

"Maybe we're not going far enough?" Sky tried.

"He should be getting a signal from my slate," Wild sighed. "He could call me all the way from Lurelin when I was in the Akkala Research Lab. Opposite sides of the country."

"I..." Sky sighed, dropping his head into his hands.

"Can I cook?" Legend asked suddenly. Warriors looked over at their veteran, who had hardly said a word since Wind was taken. He was flexing his hands and fidgeting.

Wild handed over his slate and Warriors shifted away from the fire as Legend knelt by it.

"What even happened?" Four wondered aloud. "That portal had a purpose. It wanted one of us, obviously, and Wind was just the one who it got. But why?"

Warriors wondered that too. It had looked a lot like Lana's and Cia's portals, but the war was over, Lana didn't do portals and Cia was gone. Nobody could form those portals anymore, so obviously that wasn't it.

An hour later, they were eating cookies.

Nobody knew how Legend made cookies in a cooking pot, but none of them decided to question it. Though Warriors was a bit concerned when he saw the veteran handing Wild a... a whole pie?

Tune was fifteen and staring at the carnage of their camp.

No, they weren't post battle, but he almost wished they were.

"Why?" He asked, voice strained.

Mask grinned at him. "Because."

"You dyed Impa's hair bright green."

"Yep."

"She's going to kill you."

"She doesn't know it was me."

Tune inhaled carefully. "Look, kid, I--Never mind. Just, next time get that guy who told Link--"

"That all he is is a pretty face?" A hysterical scream echoed through the camp as Mask's grin grew. "I already did."

Tune looked over and lo and behold, a soldier was on fire.

"Good job," he said. Mask grinned brighter and he disappeared to oceans knew where.

Tune didn't know how Link couldn't tell it was Mask responsible for those incidents--Tune called them Mask Incidents--but he didn't and it was the funniest thing ever.

Mask hoped the war wouldn't end some days, the nice days, the ones he could pull tricks on Link and run off with Tune only for Midna and Wolfie to drag them back.

Other days, he almost wished he was back in Termina, at least it never got that bad there.

He never knew where Tune stood on that scale, he knew his big brother fellow hero missed his brothers and his family back home, but Tune never seemed to show that.

He noticed him start drawing, and for the first few months, Tune's scrapped sketches that Mask never got full view of were thrown into a fire. Almost an entire year went by like that until Tune stopped and then would hug his sketchbook to his chest.

Mask never thought Tune could be sad, not truly sad. He'd seen the older kid get mad, usually when someone was hurt, he'd seen him happy and everything else. Never upset or sad.

Not until one late night he woke up to screaming and crying.

Mask shot up. He saw the swish of Link's scarf and then saw the source of the screaming in Tune, who was now just sobbing in his bed.

Mask had felt fear before, but not often for another person. Usually he was the one in danger, this war had changed that to an extent but still.

In that moment, he feared to his core that Tune had been poisoned in the night or something. He scrambled up as Link wrapped Tune up in his scarf.

"Shh--it's okay, you’re okay, it's alright, Link," Link murmured softly into Tune's temple. Tune sobbed and cling to him.

It clicked. A nightmare.

"Please," Tune begged.

"Its okay. We're right here. Mask is with us, I got you, you’re right here. It's okay," Link promised. "You’re okay. It's okay."

"It's not," Tune sobbed. "I want to go back."

Mask frowned. What?

"I know," Link promised, and that just cut Mask deeper. "It'll happen eventually, don't worry, it'll be alright."

Several more minutes of crying and quiet platitudes, Link didn't talk to anyone except for Tune and Mask much and Mask almost worried all the talking would hurt his throat as bad as Tune's sounded.

Then Tune went quiet, his shaking slowly ceased. Link wrapped him tighter in his big scarf and looked over at Mask.

Link frowned. "Sprite? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Mask blinked, startling as he felt a tear fall. "I-I'm fine!"

"C'mere," he said softly. "We'll have a cuddle pile."

Mask huffed but he climbed onto Tune's bed with them.

"What's on your mind, Sprite?" Link asked quietly.

Mask sighed. "He wants to leave us."

Link squeezed his arm. "It's not that, it's... it's not us, it's them. You know he loves us, he's adopted you just as much as I have at this point." Mask snorted. "It's just... he misses those siblings he talks about all the time."

"But we're right here," Mask insisted, letting Link pull him close and feeling his interrupted sleep tug on him.

"I know, Sprite," Link whispered against his head. "I know, but we only miss what we don't have."

Tune was sixteen and staring at his Sheikah stone. He had tried to call Wild maybe a thousand times since he ended up here.

He was exactly sixteen, actually... it was his birthday. He was officially the same age as Four.

He had spent hours and hours learning how to draw well, and it got him a sketchbook full of pictures of the others. He stared at the group picture he'd drawn, then flicked a few pages, tracing the dark lines of Wild's scars, Four's eyes, Hyrule's ears, Legend's smirk, Twilight's tattoo, Time's nose, Warriors' smile.

He was so engrossed in memories he didn't even notice someone sit beside him until they spoke.

"Is that Captain Link? You messed up, he doesn't have a scar there." Mask pointed at the scar against Warriors' neck.

Tune jerked his sketchbook back against his chest, hiding the drawings from the kid.

Mask gave him a narrowed eyed look. "What? You've shown me your stuff before."

"Not them," he said, clutching his sketchbook tight. "Look, I... It's not our Link, that's my older brother."

Mask stared at him. "He looks a lot like Link."

"I know," Tune let out a strained, bitter laugh. "Oh trust me, I know."

He frowned. "Does... Does that bother you?" His words were careful and very strained. It didn't take a Mask expert to know he was uncomfortable with saying them.

Tune snorted. "Don’t hurt yourself. We both know that comfort ain't your thing."

Mask huffed. "Oh fuck off. I'm trying."

Tune laughed a bit. He trailed off, the dancing and crackling fire almost letting him pretend he was in a very different camp.

"A little bit," he admitted. "Sometimes I'll... Sometimes I look over and I think it's him, I think it's my brother--and yeah, Link is my brother, adoption or not. I wouldn't trade either of you for anything, I just.." he sighed. "I miss them. I miss Aryll and Tetra and my Grandma. Aryll's almost fourteen now."

"How... How old are you?"

Tune looked at the sky. "Sixteen."

"Wait really? As of when?"

He smiled sadly. "Today."

Mask made an affronted noise. "And you didn't say anything?! Okay, no more moping!" He grabbed Tune's arm and dragged him up. "Link!"

They had a whole, thrown together party after the others found out it was Tune's birthday. Between Marin's familiar islander singing and dancing, Ravio's ability to just have everything you need when you need it, and everyone else's just...

It was a good night; a good birthday.

Tune searched the battlefield, the blood and carnage around them, and more particularly, Link's absence.

"Mask!" He barked, turning the corner of the dark palace and spotting the young hero stumbling back after prying his sword free of a ribcage. "Where's the Captain?"

"He chased Cia somewhere," Mask spat, glaring at the bodies. He fixed his Keaton mask on the side of his head. "I couldn't keep up with all the monsters."

With Cia? Tune cursed Link's insistence on keeping Mask out of the loop on what Cia really wanted, even if he wholeheartedly understood and agreed.

"Which way?" He demanded.

Mask gestured down the hall. "That way, don't know from there."

"Keep up," Tune snapped. He pulled the Wind Waker from his pouch, he'd need the--what did Legend call it, a focus?--extra help from the baton. He extended his senses into the wind and blew it outward, running down the hall.

A moblin was blasted out a window and he finally sensed where Link--and Cia--was.

He stopped by a broken window, eyes narrowing. "They're on the top floor. Get there fast, I'm taking a shortcut."

"A shortcut? How--TUNE!"

A tornado flung him out the window and up into the sky.

He spotted the large windows to the top floor, and as they drew closer he could see the glint of Link's sword, the Master Sword, on the ground. He twisted in air and shattered the window as he dove right through it.

Cia snarled as she stepped away from Link, who was on the ground with his back against the wall.

"You little brats--"

"Get the fuck away from him!" Tune lunged at her. She cursed violently, stumbling back and swinging her wand at him. He batted it aside with his shield and tried to slash at her.

Between their anger, neither was quite losing to the other until Tune finally took a hit and wasn't able to get away before Cia grabbed him by the chin.

Link screamed. "No!"

Tune had never heard Link speak outside of safe moments between mostly just the three of them.

Tune froze with the wand pointed at his chest. "You’re... You’re not a hero," she said. "You lack that gorgeous immortal spirit."

"No. No--Stop it Cia!" Link begged, getting to his feet. "Let him go, please!"

Tune snarled. "My spirit is my own. I made it. You can go fuck yourself."

"Please," Link all but whimpered, "please, let him go."

Cia grinned slowly, her eyes slipping to Link.

Tune didn't let her keep her eyes on him long. He kicked her exposed stomach, kneeing the wand in the process. She gasped, falling back and he lunged right at her.

She fell back, but he had the advantage suddenly and she couldn't handle it.

Tune snarled when she used her magic and vanished. But that wasn't what was important.

He turned quickly and ran over to Link, sheathing his sword on his back.

"Link! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did she touch you?" Tune demanded, Link collapsed back to the ground, shaking.

Link made a strangled noise. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's all my fault--"

"No." Tune knelt down in front of him, ignoring the pain flaring through his knee. "No, don't you say that. You didn't ask for this--Link, look at me," he lowered himself to force Link to meet his eyes, "look at me. You didn't ask for this, you didn't ask for any of this. Now talk to me, are you hurt? Did she touch you?"

Link slowly lifted his chin and moved his hand away from his neck. Tune saw the line of blood from the edge of his jaw down to his collarbone.

He pulled out a cloth and a red potion from his pouch, uncorking the potion and letting Link handle drinking it and holding the cloth to the cut.

"Alright, let's go," Tune said softly. "We're going to find Mask and go back to camp, you’re going to clean up and rest, we'll keep watch."

"You need rest too," Link protested weakly.

"I've stayed up longer," Tune promised. "Trust me, I'll rest later. Do you want a hand?"

Link shook his head. Tune nodded and got up, he went and gathered Link's sword and shield as the captain stood unsteadily. He handed the weapons over and led the way out.

Mask was running around the corner just in time.

"You missed it!" Tune teased him. "Too slow I guess."

"You left me!" Mask shoved him. "Brat."

"Older than you."

"I'll kill you."

"And get left behind again?"

Tune kept Mask effectively distracted as they got back to the ended battle and then to camp.

Getting Midna and Wolfie to continue distracting Mask was easy, Tune left with Link and began his vigil for the shaking teenager.

"TUNE!" Mask screamed.

Tune rolled across the rocky battlefield, pain shooting through his head and body.

The battle had been going on for what felt like weeks but was probably only a day or two. It didn't matter either way, Tune had made a mistake that may be costing him his life.

He couldn't get up. He couldn't see. His left arm was broken for sure, he had no chance--

He felt the ground shake as the heavy monster he had been fighting lumbered toward him.

He shouldn't have messed that one up. He could handle big monsters, that was how he handled things. He used his size to his advantage. It shouldn't have caught him but a blade had caught his face right before the thing's mace caught his side.

Now he was laying injured on a battlefield without any support nearby. He was so dead.

An apology went out to the stars, a plea for his families to know he wouldn't come back.

His vision was already dark, but even then it slipped away as unconsciousness took hold.

Link hadn't expected Tune to be the first one down that day, but he heard Mask scream at the same moment he heard the cracking of bones. He saw Tune tumble across the battlefield.

He rushed to get close, but he couldn't manage it.

A burst of power fell over the field, a flicker of Lana's magic too, and Link saw the Fierce Deity unleash its and Mask's fury onto the battlefield.

He ran to get to Tune, slashing through the hordes, but when he reached the area, someone was already there and fending off the horde.

A teenaged girl wielding a cutlass was standing over Tune, Lana's magic around her and her unsteady movements showed she had only just been brought here, Link had thought Lana agreed not to displace more people, but he wouldn't complain when this girl was the only reason he could hope that Tune wasn't dead.

He fought his way to them as Fierce Deity cleared the rest of the field in minutes. The girl turned on him, raising her cutlass.

He halted and held his hands up.

"Who the hell are you and why the fuck is Link hurt?" She demanded.

Proxi flew forward. "We're trying to help him, he's our friend and a dark stalmaster got the drop on him!"

The girl hesitated. "Do you have healing supplies?"

Link nodded.

She moved aside and Link rushed to Tune's side. He called a healing fairy while pouring his water onto a clean cloth and wiping at Tune's blood-covered face.

The girl inhaled sharply. "Great Oceans," she breathed, "Link..."

Link couldn't blame her. Tune's eye was gone. The healing fairy murmured her apologies but she couldn't restore his eye. Otherwise, she healed him, even the broken arm, and he'd wake soon.

Link cleaned the blood from Tune's face. Closing the eye again.

"I... He'll need an eyepatch," the girl said. "To keep things from getting into it."

Link felt the power oppressing the field fade, he looked over and saw the Fierce Deity vanish...

Mask collapsed.

"Mask!" Proxi cried. "Watch him!" She ordered the girl.

Knowing a friend of Tune's was watching him, Link ran to Mask's side.

How had this battle gone so wrong that both his little brothers were hurt? Why was Mask's face covered in blood too?

He skidded across the dirt and pulled Mask into his arms. He shouldn't be injured, Fierce Deity swore to Link once that any harm that comes to Mask is only from the transformation itself, never anything else.

So why was blood gushing from Mask's eye when he hadn't been injured like that before he put on the mask? Why was he passed out?

Link looked over and saw the girl helping Tune to his feet. Tune wobbled a bit, but he was clearly distracted as he just stared at her.

Link shifted his hand to his sword, ready to run to Tune's aid in case this girl wasn't the ally he assumed she was--

Tune tackled her with a cry. "Tetra!"

Tune was a completely different person with Tetra around, Link noticed. Not in a bad or weird way, he just... seemed happier.

Mask was quiet for several days after that battle. His eye was white now, and he had colorful markings on his face. But when Tune was finally allowed to introduce Tetra to the kid, the two teenagers got Mask right back to high spirits.

It felt like ages since the day they both lost an eye, but Tune was glad they were able to make up for each other's blind spots. He was panting, breathing heavily as he and Mask searched for their next opponent yet.

A flash of white came and Mask was lowering his Fierce Deity mask, Tune tensed at seeing the familiar markings on his face and scar over his eye.

"Link!" Tetra jogged over with Midna and Wolfie in tow. "Is it over?"

"Not sure," Tune said. "We should go find the Captain. He'd be at the center of anything if it's not."

They nodded.

Soon enough, they did find Link, and they found Lana holding Cia's unmoving form.

The moment Tune met Lana's eyes, he knew. He grabbed Tetra's hand. She startled and shot him a glare but didn't pull away.

Tune looked over at Mask beside him, at how different he was since they first met. He was a decent bit taller now but not yet even taller than Tune. He was fifteen, Tune knew, the three years of war and three years in Termina put his mental age a year younger than Tune. Physically though, he was only twelve.

He tried to commit the kid he knows to memory. His face, the still red scar over his eye, the lack of sight in that same eye, the markings... the softer look he didn't have when they first met. He wasn't as jaded and exhausted anymore.

"Mask! Tune!" Link ran over to them. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're fine," Mask said dismissively. "What about you?"

"I'm okay," Link promised. Tune was proud of how much he grew since they met, how much more he spoke. "It's--"

"Link," Tune spoke, letting go of Tetra to move forward. "We're leaving."

Mask spun to look at him. "What?!"

Link stared.

Tune nodded to Lana, who was pressing her forehead to Cia's and not looking at them yet, whispering something.

"It's time for us to return," Tune said quietly. "Their magic is growing right now, I can feel it, can't you?"

Mask stared, then tears bubbled in his eyes. "I..."

"Yeah," Tune said. "We're leaving soon." He stepped closer. "I'll see you soon."

"Don’t say that," Link whispered and he pulled Tune into a hug, Mask too.

"Time's a weird thing, Captain," Tune laughed. "Who knows, maybe Mask here will be the oldest of us next time."

"I hope not," Mask grumbled. "I like being the youngest, even if being a kid sucks ass. Being the oldest means responsibility."

Link laughed. "And we all know you hate being responsible," Link teased.

"I... I don’t want to go," Mask admitted.

"I know," Tune sighed. "But hey, isn't there anyone back home you'd like to see again? An old friend, someone who helped you out? What about that horse of yours?"

Mask gave him a more vulnerable, sad look than he'd ever seen on the young hero's face. "But you..."

"Here." Tune suddenly pressed his Wind Waker into Mask's hands. "Keep this safe for me. Give it back next time I see you."

"Wha--but--"

"Nope. No arguments. Maybe you'll have some fun with it and the Song of Storms."

Mask clutched the baton to his chest. Link ruffled Tune's hair.

"You’re a good brother," Link told him. "Be safe, okay, sailor?"

Tune grinned. "Of course."

They could all feel the moment Lana and Cia were righting and returning everyone to their times. Tune quickly hugged Wolfie before he grabbed Tetra's hand.

"Wait!" Mask suddenly ran and shoved something wooden into Tune's chest. Tune startled and he stared in shock at the item he was given. He saw Mask wipe a tear from his face. "So--So you know I won't use it anymore."

"Mask--"

"No. Keep it--we'll trade back next time."

Tune laughed softly. "Alright, fine."

Link pulled them both into another hug, he signed a goodbye to the others as well, and Tune clutched the Fierce Deity mask against his chest.

Everyone waved goodbye, and he waved back as the world vanished around him, Tetra included.

Tune knew he was different from how he was before the war. He was older, for one. Two years older.

He looked more like a pirate, eye patch for his right eye, a scar along his lower arm, he couldn't fit his lobster shirt anymore--it got torn up beyond their ability to repair it, but he kept it in case maybe Legend could--but he still kept blue, though it was a darker shade and more of a jacket than a shirt, he thought he looked more like a pirate... the jacket definitely didn't look like Linebeck's either.

As he found himself standing in a forest, alone, he looked down at the mask in his hands, brushing a finger over the markings it shared with his little brother.

He sighed softly, put it away, swiped the tears from his face, and started to look around for any path or sign of hylian or human life.

It was dark before he spotted anything, and that was a fire.

He wandered toward the fire, moving as lightly as possible and not making a sound as he did so.

He came up to a fire where a familiar--painfully so, his art never did them justice, suddenly his heart hurt at seeing them--group of hylians sat around a fire.

He took a breath, backed up, made certain the closest person was Warriors who would attack but would hesitate when he saw him--he trusted that--and he entered the light of the fire.

The camp was quieter than usual. Legend knew exactly why.

Wind was still missing, a week and one new era later, their youngest was still gone.

Legend didn't ever know he could... bake with a cooking pot, but somehow he could and did. He also didn't know that he stress baked still, but apparently yep, that too.

He wasn't sure how to keep morale up either, not anymore. Wind always helped in that regard.

Suddenly he heard branches cracking and someone stumbled into their camp. He grabbed his sword and was ready to attack.

"I have been looking for years--" the newcomer with extremely familiar magic began, "and I still haven't figured out where you got the gall to pretend you're responsible!"

There was a brief moment of silence before Warriors burst into laughter and Time groaned.

Legend blinked. "SAILOR?!"

Warriors cackled louder, Time held his head in his hands, and the newcomer--messy blond hair, an eyepatch over one eye, a dark blue coat with a lobster sewn onto the chest pocket, a huge, familiar smirk--gave Legend a bright smile in replacement of that smirk.

"Knew you'd recognize me, Apple." Wind laughed. "Honestly, how did you convince everyone you’re actually responsible, Mask? Myself included. You're an absolute menace and I have the scars to prove it."

"I never scarred you."

"Mentally you did!"

"Please. You were just as involved."

"Boys."

Sky made a surprised noise as both Time and Wind shut up at Warriors' voice, but Warriors was grinning like an idiot and Legend was so confused.

"Honestly, not even ten seconds back together and you’re causing problems."

"He's the one who set Impa's tent on fire!"

"You--" Time clicked his jaw shut and glared at Wind. "You're lucky I'm an adult now."

"As if that stopped you before," he retorted. He crossed his arms and redirected his gaze to everyone else. "So, it's been two years for me, I can tell you that war sucks and I'm still younger than my little brothers. Someone wanna remind me what shit is going down again? I have no clue what I've forgotten."

"I give up," Four declared, falling back onto the ground. "I think that makes me the youngest now. Yayyyyy."

"I don't even..." Wild trailed off.

Legend couldn't help but agree with all of them.

Twilight looked genuinely exhausted, Sky confused, Time seemed like he very much wasn't the annoyingly vague and mysterious sage person and instead an annoyed kid who got called out, Warriors looked rather content, Four and Wild seemed done, and Hyrule had visibly checked out at some point. Legend felt like he was some mix of all of the above with the exception of Warriors and Time, since they apparently knew what was going on.

He sighed heavily and scooted a bit closer to Twilight. He pat the open ground beside him. "Sit down, update us and we'll update you."

He knew that was the right move as he felt Wind's magic swell and envelop his like a tornado. Wind did sit beside him and immediately launched into a story about how he ended up in some storage room and got beat up by some "badass Sheikah lady" who was apparently Warriors' Impa, and who helped Wind teach Warriors how to fight like he does... because Warriors was the one to teach Wind how to fight that way.

He also talked about how Time was not responsible and was literally faking it til he made it because they put him on a pedestal, and Wind was certain that every time they turned to him for advice, Time internally panicked and gave some vague response to escape it.

He supposed he'd have to get used to it, Wind was back, Ocean was back... and older now. He wasn't so much younger than Legend anymore...

He also had dirt on Time and Legend was looking forward to how things changed from here.

"Hey, Tune."

Everyone glanced at Time as Wind tilted his head.

"Yeah?"

Time threw something at him and Wind caught it. Legend's eyes widened as he saw Wind holding his Wind Waker and smile softly.

"You actually kept it," he said, holding the baton carefully. He grinned at Time. "Thanks. Want your mask back?"

"Keep it safe for me, just a little longer," Time told him.

Wind nodded firmly, a certain look in his eyes as he glanced at his side where his pouch was, as if warning it to stay put.

#linked universe #lu wind #lu time #lu warriors #lu mask #lu fanfiction #war of eras #fanfic #prosie writes #lu legend #lu twilight #graphic violence #swearing #linkeduniverse #cia #timeline shenanigans #time travel #found family

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catreginae · 3 months

Text

This Ring is a Shield

As far as the others knew, Warriors' ring was just something he wore to make sure other people didn't flirt with him to much. What they don't know is that Warriors technically married and that the platonic nature of his marriage actually works great for both him and his wife. It should have been easy to explain the nature of his marriage but in truth, he's just tired. He's tired of the comments, tired of the advice he didn't asked for, and tired of the pity. AKA the "Warriors and his wife are both aroace but Warriors takes his sweet time telling the chain" fic. I wrote a one-shot! A long one but it's a one shot and I finished it just in time for the aro and ace prompts for the @queering-the-chain event. You can also find this fic on AO3!

When Warriors saw the collection of buildings ahead of them signifying civilization, he pulled his ring out of one of his many pouches and slipped it onto his ring finger. The ring was slightly too big when he didn’t have his gloves on but seeing as he only really wore it in uniform, he didn’t have any reason to complain about it. Getting it sized down a notch wouldn’t be difficult but the thought only ever crossed his mind when he happened to be somewhere he couldn’t get it done.

“Why do you only put the ring on when we’re around other people?” Wind asked as he sped up to keep up with Warriors.

“Because he wants people to think he’s married,” Legend answered with a shrug. “It lets people know that they don’t have a chance with him. It helps when you’re in an era that isn’t your own and you don’t want to complicate whatever this is even further. The timeline is fragile enough without becoming your own great-grandfather or something stupid like that.”

Warriors hummed, wondering if it was wise to correct Legend. The veteran was definitely correct about one thing – he didn’t want people to be interested in him. However, he was technically married. He didn’t blame the others for thinking he was single, seeing as he called Time’s wedding ring a shackle and he didn’t treat his own ring as a symbol of love and devotion. Warriors didn’t think that the others would give him a hard time if he told him that he was married and why but in his experience, trying to explain his feelings on romance and intimacy was an exercise in frustration.

“You’re on the right track,” he said after a moment of hesitation. He didn’t have to explain it all now. Warriors could just give them something to think about and leave it at that.

“Right track?” Legend huffed. “Where am I wrong?”

Warriors chuckled and ruffled Legend’s hair, dislodging his hat from where he usually kept it on his head. Legend responded with a growl as he swatted the captain’s hands away and readjusted his hat.

Thankfully, they went the rest of the day without anybody asking about the ring on his finger.

“Thanks for coming, Link,” Zelda greeted as Link dropped the salute and she motioned for him to sit in the chair across from hers. “I have a big favour to ask of you and you’re going to hate it.”

Link didn’t say anything, electing to let Zelda continue speaking.

“I’ve been negotiating with the Arlet family for more support in the court,” she started. Link nodded along. From what he knew of the court, a lot of the nobles were giving her some trouble regarding how she was getting and allocating funds for the ongoing reconstruction effort, which was further behind than Zelda wanted. Getting the support of any of the noble families for this issue, and any future concerns, would be a massive relief for her. The less people she had to argue with, the better. “They are willing to support me and fund some of the reconstruction themselves... in exchange for your hand in marriage with one of their daughters.”

He gulped. Oh, she was definitely right when she said he was going to hate it. Zelda knew he wasn’t interested in marriage but he supposed that when he pledged allegiance to Zelda and Hyrule, that was out of his hands. She said it would be a favour but Link knew there wasn’t actually a choice in the matter. After all, she didn’t actually ask him.

“Do I at least get to meet her?”

“That can be arranged. Link... look, I know you don’t want to be married but...”

“It’s politics. I know.”

“Gah! Where is it?” No matter how many times Warriors looked through all of his bags and pouches, he couldn’t find his ring. It wouldn’t be missed or hard to replace thanks to the fact that he married into nobility but he didn’t want to have to admit to his in-laws that ever lost it in the first place. His wife wouldn’t care because she wasn’t all attached to the rings whatsoever and she only wore hers when she had to leave the villa. He couldn’t afford to be an embarrassment to Athena though.

Maybe it was on the ground? He swore he had it before they set up camp, so it couldn’t have gone too far away.

“What are you looking for?” Four asked. Warriors was so engrossed in his search that he jumped slightly when he heard Four.

“My ring. I can’t find it in any of my bags.”

Without question, Four got down on his hands and knees and started patting the ground for it. As far as the rest of them knew, it was a cheap ring he used to prevent people from flirting with him too much, but it was kind of Four to help him find it regardless of what he might have thought it was.

“Oh, here it is!” Four announced as he held up the ring. “Huh, this is good quality gold and I think I see engraving... Are you sure that this is just-”

“Thanks for finding it!” Warriors said as he plucked the ring out of Four’s fingers and put it back in his satchel where it usually stayed when he wasn’t wearing it on his finger. He really ought to find a better place for it. Maybe he should use it for its intended purpose more often and just wear it on his finger, even if he didn’t care for the symbolism behind it.

“Maybe you should have a small pocket for it in your satchel. Maybe with some sort of button. It would suck if you lost it in another era.”

“That’s not a bad idea...” It wouldn’t be hard to make a pocket inside of this satchel. He just needed some more material for it. Why didn’t he think of that before?

Link sat in one of Zelda’s meeting rooms with his heart drumming in the pit of stomach. He was sitting at a small, rounded table with a pot of tea and some biscuits in the middle. He already poured himself a cup and ate one of the biscuits in an effort to calm his nerves a bit. It didn’t help. He found himself wishing he was outside fighting something big – at least he was confident in his swordsmanship.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Link shifted so that his back was straight. A guard in full uniform opened the door and walked in, followed by a tall yet slim woman with chestnut coloured hair pinned into a bun. Her dress was plain, yet well-made from what Link could see, and the green and brown colour scheme matched her green eyes. When she approached the table, Link realized she would be taller than he was if he stood up. She took the seat opposite of his.

“I take it you’re Captain Link?”

“Yes. Just Link is fine.”

“You can call me Vivienne,” she said as she held her hand out. “Nice to meet you.”

Link took it. “Likewise...” he said as the guard walked out. Once the door was closed, Link let her hand go. “Before we start talking, I just wanted to say that I’m not actually... interested in couple things. I don’t really like romance and I never had the desire for intimacy and no offense, but I don’t think that will change any time soon. If I had a choice, I would probably never get married or hook up with anybody.”

He was the man who stared death in the face several times in his life so far but telling a stranger who was going to be his wife how he actually felt about being married was one of the most nerve-wracking things he had ever done. He was less nervous when the fate of Hyrule was resting on his shoulders.

“I just didn’t want you to get your hopes up...” he added slowly when she didn’t respond at first.

“Link, it’s... it’s fine. In fact... I was trying to figure out how I would say the same thing to you. I’m glad you said it first,” she said with an awkward chuckle but she also had an easy smile that actually made Link relax a little.

“So... we want the same thing. Am I hearing that right?”

“Yes. It seems as though we make a good match, though not for the typical reasons noble families arrange marriages for their children. We can make this work, I’m sure. After all, I doubt either one of us would get this opportunity to marry like minded people again.” She relaxed her shoulders as reached for one of the biscuits. That was when it finally sunk in for Link – he had nothing to fear. Zelda wouldn’t know it but her favour was actually a blessing.

“No kidding. Just to think I was so scared,” he said with a deep sigh, putting a hand on his chest. “If nothing else, I know how to put on a show.”

Spending time at the ranch was sometimes a bit of an odd affair for Warriors. It wasn’t that he hated doing hard work that often involved him getting dirty somehow, as much as the others like to make assumptions about his current life that happened to be close to the city. He didn’t mind any of the work Time gave them just to keep them busy and tire them out because collectively, they needed to burn some energy. None of them were really good at just sitting still.

He just felt awkward around Malon and Time sometimes. It wasn’t anything they did together or even separately – he loved them both. He was happy for both of them because they truly seemed to fit well together. Time deserved to be happy after everything he went through.

The problem was that he couldn’t get his brain to shut up. Sometimes, it was hard to watch Time and Malon enjoy their marriage without all the ‘life advice’ and the persistent questioning about his nonexistent dating life racing through his head and weighing him down. He could imagine all of those people pointing at Time and Malon, setting them up as the prime example of everything he was supposedly missing out on.

Aren’t you lonely without a partner? You just have to find the right person, then you’ll fall in love. You’ll settle down later in life, you’re just busy right now. Won’t you regret it if you don’t have any kids?

Those weren’t even the worst. The worst was the pity, the way they looked like they were sorry for him.

Like he was broken.

“Warriors?”

“Hm?” It took him a second to realize that somebody was trying to talk to him. It also took him a second to realize that his wrist was sore from holding his head up as he lounged against the horse fence. How long did he zone out for? His brain, his current worst enemy, helpfully reminded him that getting distracted like that in the battlefield would have gotten him or somebody else killed. Thanks, brain, he really needed that.

“Wow, you really are distracted,” Legend mumbled. “What’s going on? You look upset.”

Legend was good at teasing and poking fun but he was also good at knowing when it wasn’t welcomed. He must have zoned out for longer than he thought if Legend was frowning at him like that.

“It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? You’re all tense. I know the ranch will never be completely safe but you can relax a little bit.”

“I... yeah.” Legend was right, though not for the reason he might have thought. He shouldn’t let a bunch of people he could barely remember ruin his time at the ranch. How often do people get to travel through time and visit their now giant little brother’s home? Time and Malon did absolutely nothing but be welcoming and kind to him. It wasn’t them who tried to give him advice he never asked for. “I think I’ll just head inside.”

He heard Legend huff as pushed himself off the fence and walked inside the house.

Link woke up with the sun as he always did but it still took him a moment to remember just where he was waking up. He wasn’t used to the soft bed sheets, he wasn’t used to sleeping with more pillows than anybody actually needed to sleep, and he wasn’t used to being vaguely aware of another body in the same bed he was in. Luckily, his bed and sheets were so large that he had yet to really feel Vivienne moving around, but that didn’t stop him from being aware that she was there.

This morning though, she wasn’t there and if his head didn’t pound so much, he would have gotten up to go look for her. He always woke up before she did.

No, he should get up anyway. He had to go to the training grounds. The army had a lot of new recruits and he was one of the captains responsible for training the recruits who started to show some promise with a sword or at least seemed interested in learning how to use one. He sat up and a wave of dizziness struck him, forcing him to settle his head into his hands with his elbows digging into his thighs. His head was still pounding. His stomach felt like it was going to betray him.

Suddenly, the door opened. Link didn’t lift his head up to see who it was but only Vivienne would be around at the moment. The only other person who spent a lot of time in the villa, a women they hired named Clarissa who helped them maintain the villa, didn’t come in until much later in the morning. Usually, Link only saw her when he returned home and she was just getting ready to leave.

“Go back to sleep, Link,” Vivienne said as she guided him back down to the mattress. “I’ve already pulled a couple of strings to make sure that anybody who was expecting you knows you’re not available for the foreseeable future. You have quite the fever there.”

Oh, yeah, that would explain things.

However, it was also putting it mildly.

He was barely able to keep anything down except for some plain toast and water and even then, sometimes the toast was too much. His head never stopped aching or spinning so he had a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep. Vivienne was concerned enough to call for a doctor, who was constantly trying new medicine or new dosages. Sometimes he could keep the medicine down, sometimes he couldn’t. The doctor came daily to check for any signs for change for better or for worse. He supposed that was a perk to being married into a noble family – they had the extra rupees to pay for a doctor’s full attention.

No matter how bad it got though, Vivienne and Proxi, who dropped into their home at some point and declared that she was staying until he felt better, were always around for him. Proxi helped with encouraging words or translating his mumbled speech to Vivienne or the doctor. Vivienne was always there to help him feel more comfortable, like washing his face and back, changing the sheets, or holding his hair back when something upset his stomach too much. Sometimes, she even rubbed small circles into his back until he drifted off to sleep for as long as his body would allow.

All in all, it took nearly three weeks before Link was well enough to return to the barracks. They weren’t married for that long and once he was well, Link found himself a little embarrassed that one of her first impressions of him was him being violently ill.

Vivienne simply smiled when he said as much. “Link, we might be stuck together but I consider you to be a friend nonetheless and when one of my friends is suffering, I try my best to make it better. I’m glad you’re alright now and I’m glad I didn’t catch whatever that was.”

“You should be. It was awful.”

“I didn’t know you liked cats,” Twilight said with a grin as squatted down to scratch one of them behind the ears while Warriors was busy petting one down the length of its back. It was a creamy-white colour with long, fluffy fur that seemed pretty well taken care of if it was truly a stray. All the cats he saw had soft and shiny coats, seemed to be of a healthy weight, and he didn’t see any signs of illness. Maybe somebody did take care of them all. There were a few people in his own Castletown who took it upon themselves to make sure the strays were doing well.

He felt like he ought to be doing more, since they were in a large city and not every era had a big city to explore. Twilight’s Castletown felt much like his own, busy and bursting with life, including the very many cats he found in one of the residential side streets. However, he was busy petting cats and he didn’t think the cats weren’t going to let him go anytime soon even if he did want to leave. The cats were the perfect distraction for his very busy mind and they seemed to sense that he needed a distraction because they surrounded him in an instant. He was petting one or two at a time but the rest were doing their own thing, simply content to bless him with their presence. How could he possibly leave them to go do errands?

“Oh, I love them! I have one of my own, actually.”

Warriors always did enjoy cats but his parents never allowed one in their home, since it was attached to their store and well, his parents didn’t want fur all over the clothes they were trying to sell. He didn’t like it but his parents had a point. It wasn’t until he moved in with Vivienne that a pet was feasible – they had the room and she spent most of her time indoors, so Penelope was never alone for too long.

“Really? You have a pet? Aren’t you busy being a big shot in the army?” Twilight asked with the grin that always accompanied his playful jabs to Warriors’ career choice.

“Well, I don’t live alone. I have a roommate who takes care of her when I’m not around. That’s why we picked her out together from a neighbour’s litter. She looks kind of like this one,” Warriors said, gesturing to the cat he was petting, “but she’s all white and her name is Penelope.”

“Penelope!” Twilight was practically squealing. “Fucking adorable.”

Thankfully, Twilight didn’t ask about his roommate. He didn’t feel like explaining that his roommate was actually his wife and Penelope was regarded as their child and she was even introduced to his in-laws as such. Link inquired about putting Penelope in their will to inherit their estate should they both die suddenly and tragically young but her parents only begrudgingly called Penelope ‘the furry grandchild’, so they wouldn’t find it as funny as they did. Unless they adopted a Hylian child or brought more cats into the house, Penelope was the only ‘grandchild’ her parents were getting from them. Maybe they won’t care – Vivienne wasn’t their only child to get grandchildren from and she wasn’t inheriting the main estate anyway.

“I hope you know that if we’re ever in your neck of the woods, we’re going to see her. You’re not allowed to hide a cat from me.”

Warriors found himself laughing. “Twilight, I know better than to get between you and an animal.”

Link was grateful that his in-laws didn’t try to parade them around or throw extravagant parties on their behalf that often. Their wedding was mostly just friends and family from both sides and it took place in the Arlet estate garden, so it was out of the view of the public. Vivienne said something about how they were glad she got married at all, so maybe they were afraid to rock the boat too much. Maybe that’s why they didn’t argue when Penelope was introduced as their child.

For their first anniversary, her parents decided once again to forgo something fancy and just gifted the two a bunch of wine that they definitely drank too much of that night because he couldn’t really remember what they did besides drink a lot. He did remember waking up on the bedroom floor with Penelope sleeping on his back. Her parents didn’t leave Penelope out of the celebration either, giving her a bed that she went on to use a lot.

But Link knew that one day, his in-laws would drag him to some sort of function where they would show him off. He was the hero and a noble now.

He couldn’t say he was surprised when his father-in-law showed up at his door unannounced, thankfully when he was actually home, and told him and Vivienne that he was hosting a party and he expected the two of them to be there. Luckily, he already had clothes for the occasion that Vivienne said were nice enough – a gift from his tailoring family when he got married – and he went to fancy dinner parties before as a bodyguard, so at least he wasn’t going in blind.

“Vivienne and Link!” They spent maybe all of five seconds at her father’s before he found them near the entrance. Link wouldn’t have been surprised if he was waiting for them. His father-in-law gestured towards the rest of his estate with a grin on his face. “Link, let me show you around. This is your first time inside the main estate, yes?”

Link looked back at Vivienne. She simply shook her head. They were stuck following his father-in-law around his estate. Link couldn’t tell if it was because he was proud of his estate and actually liked showing it off to people or if it was some clever way to show off Link himself to the guests that were already there. He was certainly recognized as the hero even though his scarf was missing. At least he was used to getting looks from strangers all the time.

But it was made tolerable with Vivienne being close by, offering some sort of comment about what trouble she got into as a kid when her father introduced them to a new wing of the estate. Apparently, she was quite the fan of climbing when she was a child and he could see it in her father’s face that he wasn’t sure if he should have been amused or exasperated by the memories. When her father let them go to hang out and eat in the dining room, the two of them stuck together in a lonely corner of the room, watching and making quiet comments about the other guests. Vivienne knew most of them and had some juicy details to share.

If Link had to summarize the party, he would call it two friends suffering together. He had a decent time but it wasn’t because of anything that was offered at the party – it was spending time with a friend and engaging in gossip.

It made him think of all the people he could have been stuck with, all the people who would want more than he was comfortable with offering or just couldn’t offer at all. He couldn’t reciprocate romantic feelings as he didn’t feel them and the thought of being intimate made him deeply uncomfortable.

But being friends and sharing a space with Vivienne was easy. They were two friends who had to pretend to be more sometimes, but the important part was that they both knew that it was a game.

Warriors frequented taverns and pubs, not just to have a drink or two with those he was close to but because drunk people were a fountain of information. It was less helpful in his own era since people knew who he was and were more guarded around him, but in other eras where people had no idea who he was? They saw no reason to filter their words and they told him all sorts of things. Sometimes it was useful but sometimes he just got sucked into whatever gossip there was and he didn’t learn anything that would help them.

Today, he was at a pub with Sky and Twilight. He didn’t drink with them often, just once or twice in Time’s era when Time dragged them to Castletown. Time was his usual drinking buddy but he seemed pretty tired so he declined his invitation. It was times like those where he truly lived up to his ‘old man’ nickname.

Alcohol didn’t change Twilight that much. His accent was definitely coming out more and he was a bit louder but otherwise, Twilight was acting mostly the same. Sky was quieter after a couple of drinks, like he was contemplating matters of existence. The chosen hero wasn’t the chattiest to begin with but after a few drinks, he didn’t start conversations anymore. He needed to be roped into it.

They were only a few drinks in when a woman slid into the seat beside him with a wide grin on her face. Great, he knew exactly where this was going. Before she could say anything, Warriors held up his hand with his ring on it. “Before you say anything, just know that I’m already taken.”

“Oh, are they here right now?” she asked, her eyes scanning the crowd before her gaze settled on him again. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

“I’m not a cheater,” Warriors snapped back. “I’m happy with my wife.”

“Is she happy with you? You’ve got the look of a military man. When’s the last time you’ve gone home to see her? Are you sure she’s been as loyal to you as you are to her?”

Warriors wasn’t sure what her goal was. He never had anyone who wanted to sleep with him insult him and his wife in the span of a minute. Was she mad that he rejected her?

“You don’t know anything. If you’re trying to get me into bed with you, you’re failing miserably,” he said as he stood up. Sky and Twilight caught him and he spotted Twilight fishing out his wallet as Warriors found the shortest route to the exit. He didn’t look back as he headed to the one familiar spot in town and stepped into the room he was sharing with Four and Hyrule. He must have looked a mess because the two took one look at him and stayed away from him for the rest of the night. Just as well, he didn’t feel like talking.

He knew he couldn’t avoid it though. He wasn’t surprised that Sky found him in the morning as Warriors chugged down some water, hoping that the minor ache in his head would disappear if he had more water. At least, Warriors hoped that the minor headache came from alcohol and not because that woman at the bar made him so angry that he had a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep.

Though, if he was honest with himself, it wasn’t just the encounter at the bar. His mind raced constantly, dredging up experiences and memories that he wanted to bury and never look at again. Ever since he was asked about his ring, he couldn’t stop thinking about all of the unhelpful and unwarranted advice he got when he was single or all the pity he got when people thought he was stuck in a sad, loveless marriage. Warriors just couldn’t stop thinking about it even when he wanted to or needed to focus on something else.

He hoped they weren’t travelling. He was pretty sure he wasn’t fit for it.

“Why did you storm out of the bar last night? Was it the woman?”

“Of course it was the woman!”

Sky smiled awkwardly and rubbed at the back of his neck. Shit, he shouldn’t have answered his question like that. He wasn’t mad at Sky.

“What did she say that set you off? Twilight and I didn’t really hear it.”

“She wanted me to cheat on my wife and when I rejected her, she start insinuating that my wife was cheating on me and before you ask, I actually do have a wife.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant when you said Legend was on the right track,” he mumbled as he titled his head slightly. “You are actually married, huh?”

“It’s a political marriage. Athena needed extra support from a noble and she got it when I married the noble’s daughter. Through marriage with the hero, that family is now closer than ever to the royal family and in return, Athena has more weight to throw against other nobles.”

“So you didn’t marry for love?” Sky asked with a slight pout on his lips that often came with confusion. Warriors could feel his frustration bubble under his skin but he took a deep breath. It wasn’t Sky’s fault that Warriors had this conversation before with a bunch of other people who didn’t understand that not everybody wants to date or be in a marriage or be intimate.

“I’m actually happy this way. I don’t care if it’s a ‘loveless’ marriage. We both knew what we were getting into before the documents were drawn up and before we were actually married. I made it clear to her the first time we met that I wasn’t interested in sex or romance. It turns out she feels the same way. We’re just roommates who occasionally have to pretend that we are more than just roommates. We share a home, we share a bed that’s so big we barely know there’s somebody else in it, and we share custody of a cat named Penelope. I’m not interested in anything more than that.”

Sky hummed for a moment, then smiled. “Well, if that’s what you want, then that arrangement sounds perfect for both of you. As long as you’re both happy, nobody should get a say about what the two of you do or don’t do together.”

For a moment, Warriors was taken aback. In his experience, it generally took a lot more convincing before somebody backed off and switched topics. He didn’t know why it was so hard to convince people that was actually happy.

“Why didn’t you say this before, though? Everybody would have understood.”

“Because it’s tiring... before I got married, everyone and their grandma would tell me that I just had to meet the right person, then I would want to date and get married and have kids. If I met the right person, I would be ‘normal’. Now that they know this marriage is political more than anything else... they fucking pity me. They think the fact that I didn’t marry for love is something to pity. Some people even tell me I’ll learn to fall in love with my wife. They just can’t fathom that somebody just... doesn’t care about any of that. It’s so tiring. I’m tired of trying to explain it and people looking at me like I’m broken or something. No matter how many times I tell them I’m happy, they just don’t believe me.”

Sky frowned. “Has... this been on your mind for a while? We all noticed that you seemed distracted lately.”

He only nodded. The thoughts probably would have started bothering him at some point, even if nobody asked about his ring. They seem to come and go, more often when he was in town and people tried to talk to him. However, the current cyclical nature of his thoughts was because he was asked about his ring and he had to think about how to answer.

“Do you ever plan on telling the others that you’re married?”

“If we end up nearby, yes.” He did tell Twilight he could meet Penelope and even if he didn’t, the villa would be a nice break for them and their wallets. They were always maintaining guest rooms that didn’t get used so it would be nice if the villa was full of people for once. It was far too large for a family of three and their hired help. “For now, I just need to collect my thoughts.”

Though... it helped that Sky took it so well. Maybe he wouldn’t have to explain it to them more than once. They would probably believe him if he said he was actually happy with his arrangement.

“Okay. Just let me know if you need any help.”

“I will. Thanks, Sky.”

Warriors thought there would be more time between his conversation with Sky and the conversation he knew he needed to have with the others before they set up in the villa for a few days. It was only a couple of weeks after he talked to Sky that a portal took them to a battle and it was when he was wiping the black blood off his blade that he realized that he recognized the castle in the distance. His villa was only about a half an hour from the castle.

“To the castle?” Twilight asked.

“Actually, there’s a place we should go first. Athena can wait until tomorrow.”

“Oh, so this is your era,” Legend said with a nod. “What’s this stop you plan on taking?”

“My place. It’s big enough to fit all of us comfortably.”

Wind raised an eyebrow. “How big is your place?”

“It’s...” Was this how he was going to start explaining who Vivienne was? By explaining why he can comfortably host them all? His gaze met with Sky’s, who gave him an encouraging nod. “It’s a villa. I moved in when I got married.”

There was a moment of awkward silence before Legend glared him. “Is that what you meant when you said I was on the right track? You could have just said so! It was bugging me ever since you said it.”

Warriors rolled his eyes. “I didn’t feel like explaining it back then. Even now, it’s a little difficult...” He took a deep breath. “I got married because Athena asked me to. I didn’t pick my wife but it’s pretty convenient for both of us because we are both just happy being friends. If I had to get married to somebody else, I wouldn’t be able to return any romantic feelings and being intimate would be out of the question. We have to put on a show sometimes but that’s a small price to pay to able to say I’m married and not have to do anything I’m uncomfortable with.”

He had no doubt that there were questions but the others simply nodded, except for Sky who offered two thumbs up instead. Maybe they were just saving questions for later but he wasn’t going to complain about the break. They probably cared more about having a roof over their heads than about his odd but convenient marriage.

Wind hummed for a moment before putting a hand on his chin. “So your wife won’t mind if we stay at your place then?”

“I doubt she would care. In fact, she might even be happy that we’re using the guest rooms as guest rooms for once.”

“What are they being used for now?” Time asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Decoration.”

“Wait, this means we get to meet Penelope!”

“Who?”

“His cat!” Twilight answered with a wide grin. “C’mon, butts in gear! We have a cat to meet!”

There were some grumbles but the group started moving, following Warriors as he led them to the villa. It was nearly sunset by the time they got there so he wasted no time in opening the front gate and letting everybody in. He stopped them as soon as they got into the front doors and he couldn’t immediately see her nearby. He didn’t think she would get upset about the villa being used as an inn for a few days, he wanted to give her a little bit of warning.

He found Penelope first in one of their many hallways so he scooped her up and kept looking for Vivienne until he found her in her plant room, which was the room in the villa with the most windows. She was bent over one of the pots trimming the plant inside of it. He cleared his throat to let Vivienne know he was coming in so she didn’t startle and drop the trimmers.

“Oh, you’re home.” She straightened her back and turned around to face him.

“For a bit. If there’s another lead, I’ll have to go again. I have company though!”

“Oh, those heroes you mentioned in the single letter I got?” she asked with a smirk. Warriors winced internally – they were still friends and he should really let her know more often that he was still alive and her father didn’t have to find a new husband for her. “I’m not upset, by the way. I can only imagine that time travel complicates things, to say the least.”

“Yeah. I got busy. I didn’t realize I only sent one letter,” he mumbled as he ran a hand through Penelope’s fur. “But they’re in the lobby if you want to meet them. I told them they could stay here for a few days since we have the room.”

“It would be a shame not to use it. It might be the only time we’ll fill all four guest rooms at the same time. Let’s go show them their rooms, then. My parents didn’t raise me to be a bad host.”

Warriors’ heart pounded in his chest was they walked back to the lobby. He couldn’t understand why he was so nervous. The others would be nice to Vivienne and they knew she was his wife, so there wasn’t anything to hide. Vivienne was generally pretty nice and she got along with the people he was close with before. It should go well but his nerves were still getting the best of him.

Finally, he saw the other heroes, who were all studying Vivienne.

“Wow, she’s tall!” Wind gasped. Vivienne was a bit taller than Time, as it turned out and she wasn’t even wearing shoes. Her entire family was tall – taller than he was – so he wasn’t exactly surprised that she beat them all.

“We’re just kind of short,” Time chimed in, shaking his head.

“This is Vivienne,” Warriors started, gesturing with his free arm, “and this our daughter, Penelope. Vivenne, you already know their names but they’ll introduce themselves with their nicknames sooner or later.”

“Can I hold Penelope?” Twilight asked, arms outstretched.

“Just keep her belly down, she hates being on her back,” he warned as she gently passed her over.

It was a good thing that Penelope enjoyed a lot of attention. Once she was settled in Twilight’s arms, it wasn’t just Twilight who was petting her – half the group was reaching around and crowding Twilight to get a chance to pet her. Warriors could hear her purring over the excited cooing coming from the boys.

“I hope she doesn’t expect that much attention from now on,” Vivienne mumbled before she turned to the others. “I know Penelope is amazing but I should show you to your rooms. Penelope doesn’t leave the house, she’ll be around for more petting later. She may even pick one your rooms to spend the night in later.”

“We’ll be back,” Twilight said quietly as he pet her on the head one more time and set her down on the floor. Warriors watched as everybody followed her, looking around the villa as they did so. Penelope purred and rubbed her head on his leg so he picked her up once again.

“That went well,” he mumbled as he looked down at her giant green eyes. “Especially for you.”

She meowed.

“Yeah, you are spoiled. You deserve it, though.”

Instead of following everybody to the guest rooms, he headed towards the master bedroom to change into something more comfortable. He set Penelope down on their bed – neither he nor Vivienne cared if Penelope got her fur all over it – and slowly stripped off all of his equipment and gear, dropping everything on the floor by his side of the bed to deal with later.

One loose shirt and clean pair of trousers later, he left the master bedroom to find that everybody was gathered at the kitchen table that he and Vivienne usually used for their own dinners. The only person not at the table was Wild, who was poking around in the oven to warm it up. There was a more official dining room in the villa but they only used that one when Vivienne had family over and it had one of those long dining tables that made Warriors wonder if anybody actually wanted to eat together. The table in the kitchen was a little small for the size of the group but they were all used to butting into each other’s space all the time.

Warriors decided to stay on the periphery of the conversations, joining only when their conversations were directed at him. He wanted his brothers and his wife to get along, so he wasn’t going to intrude when it seemed like they were actually bonding. Vivienne was relaxed, talking to the group in the same way she spoke to him or the few times he saw she had a couple of the neighbours over for some tea. It was also the same way she spoke to Clarissa, as the two of them became friends pretty quickly. She spoke more formally with some of her family members than she did with the other heroes.

As for the heroes, they were behaving as he expected – they were asking Vivienne for embarrassing stories about him. Oh, well. If that was the price of peace, he would let it slide. It wasn’t like she had a lot on him in particular.

Once they all had dinner and tea, the group of heroes all headed to their rooms, except for Sky. He helped himself to the last of the tea in pot and started to headed to his assigned room but he made sure that he passed Warriors.

“You did a good job today,” he said quietly, adding a small but sincere smile before leaving.

Once he was gone, Vivienne tapped him on the shoulder. “He’s right, you did a good job. I know it’s not easy to tell people we’re married,” she started before gesturing toward their own bedroom, “but we should go to get some rest too if we’re hosting this many people.”

“They can be a handful,” Warriors mumbled. “I’m sure Penelope is waiting for us anyway. Let’s go.”

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu fanfic #my writing #linked universe fanfic #lu warriors #lu sky #lu twilight #lu legend #the rest are there but they don't do much #acephobia #tagging just in case #catreginae: one shots #original character #warriors is in an arranged marriage #warriors is in a marriage of convenience #queered into oblivion

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zarvasace · 3 months

Note

Shatterproof four splitting and all the colors spend their day with different other links? Maybe Blue with Wind and Wild, Vio with Wars and Hyrule, Red with Time and Legend and Green with Sky and Twillight! (just suggestions, you can mix and match them up maybe?)

I like these suggestions! :)

Just under 1k words—

---

“On your mark,” Wind says, “get set…”

Blue glares at the grassy ground, his muscles taut and brimming with energy. It's been several long weeks since Four split, and he's pent-up. Beside him, Wild’s heel shifts against the ground.

“Go!” Wind slashes his hand through the air, and Blue and Wild take off.

The route isn’t long, just across the clearing and back, so Blue is optimistic. It feels so good to stretch out, even if his pain is at a mid-level today. His feet pound against the tall grass and the hard dirt beneath, and though he tries, Wild pulls ahead.

On the way back, Blue’s foot catches in a divot, and he goes sprawling. He scrapes his elbows but manages to stop himself before he flies too far. The world stops rolling. He stares up at the cloudy sky and sighs.

Wild skids to a stop. “Blue! You okay?”

“Fine,” Blue calls back, rolling up to sitting. And then, with a secret thrill of joy that he would never hold over any of the others’ heads, even if they know he feels it, he stands up. “I think I'm just out of practice. And your legs are longer anyway, freak, so you have an unfair advantage!”

“Hey,” Wild protests, but he laughs. He hasn't made it to the other end of the clearing yet, worried for Blue. Wind raises his eyebrows when he meets Blue’s eyes.

Blue walks calmly over, letting himself limp just a little. He laughs along with Wild. “It's just been a while since I ran, that's all.”

“Yeah, okay, I'll give you that,” Wild shrugs.

And then Blue takes off again. He runs the last five or six steps to their designated finish line. “HA! I WON!”

“Now that's unfair!” Wild says, jogging over.

Wind collapses into laughter.

---

At this point, after so many lessons and a lot of practice, Vio is only slightly better at signing than Hyrule. He's very happy for Hyrule, of course, but it does rankle his pride just a little, so he takes up Warriors on his invitation and joins the next little lesson.

As he observes Warriors and Hyrule have a half-silent conversation, it becomes obvious that their communication is less about learning actual sign words or grammar and more about figuring out how to adapt it for the two of them. Everything Warriors says has to be in contact with Hyrule’s skin, one way or another, so Vio doesn't catch most of that.

But Hyrule’s signs are pretty normal, since Warriors can see them, except for one thing.

“That—” Vio starts, then bites his tongue.

“What?” Hyrule says. “Was that wrong?”

“Um, only in that your spelling is… off.”

“It doesn't matter,” Warriors shrugs, hands flying. “I've figured out his phonetics.”

Vio makes a face. “Wars says it doesn't matter, he knows what you're saying anyway, but the perfectionist in me is frustrated.”

Hyrule laughs. “Sorry. I haven’t ever, you know, learned letters before. I figured I was getting some of it wrong.”

“You know,” Vio says thoughtfully, thinking back to his books at home, “I know there's a type of writing that was developed by people with low vision. I don't know much about it, but I know it exists in my time. I wonder if we could find some of it.”

“Oooooh,” Hyrule says, his eyes widening.

---

Red picks another dandelion at the base of its stem, close to the ground. “And then you use your fingernail to make a little slit by the flower, like this! You can't make it too big, though.” He demonstrates, smiling at the way both Time and Legend lean in to see better.

“And then…” He slides the stem of his next dandelion through the hole in the first. “Ta da!”

“So pretty similar to a normal wildflower chain,” Legend says, copying Red and starting a dandelion chain of his own. “Do you ever put knots in it?”

Red hums, considering. “No, I think these stems would break. They're tough but don't bend very well.”

“Sort of like Legend,” Time says, smiling.

Legend huffs, but he can't hide the little smile of his own. “Sure. Whatever.”

When Red finishes his dandelion chain, he loops it around into a crown and drops it right on Legend’s fluffy head. Legend returns the favor, putting his own dandelion chain on Red’s head, except it's a bit too wide, and it falls to his neck instead.

Legend’s snort-laugh starts off a round of laughter that Red and Time can't easily shake.

---

Twilight pulls out the shopping list again, adjusting his hold on the bag that sits over one shoulder as he does so. “So is that everything?”

“Hm?” Sky says, looking back over at Twilight. “Oh. Yes. I think so.”

Green catches up, weighed down a little by a supply pack of his own on his back and the fact that even using crutches, he’s a bit short. “Wait, no, Wind needs a belt, and I need some more brass rivets.”

Sky snaps his fingers. “Right, rivets! Hey, Wind didn't say anything about a belt… did he?” He glances at Twilight, who shakes his head.

“Wars keeps inventory,” Green explains. “And I noticed.”

Twilight puts away the shopping list. “Sounds like a trip to the leatherworks, then.”

Green eyes Twilight as he passes. “You could use a new sword belt, too. Let's see if they have anything with the D-rings. If not, I'll make one.”

“Thanks, Green. What would we do without you?"

"Suffer."

#my writing #lu #shatterproof #lu four #lu uhhh all of them #linked universe #there #prompts and minifics

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legendofmorons · 1 year

Note

Hi! Im new to requesting here so i hope im not late or sending you something thats against your rules. I also hope something like this hasn't been requested before.

Could i request some semi-romatic chain x reader (platonic for Wind because he's baby) where the reader needs to go do something (example: shopping, hunting, scouting, etc) and they need one of the links to come with them because they aren't the best at fighting/aren't familiar with this hyrule. So the way they get their attention is by calling for their "Pretty boy". Bonus points if the chain(again platonic for Wind) had a crush on reader!

Idk if you've seen that tiktok audio/video where someone goes, "Pretty boy, with me I say!" "..." "..." "Oh! I'm pretty boy?" "Yes! That came out a bit too quickly-" "...pretty?"

All i can think of is basically reader accidentally calling the link for you choice "pretty boy" subconsciously. The reader could either play it off and the link could tease them or reader can go all in and continue calling said link "pretty boy".

Hopefully that makes sense and/or isn't too much? Also if possible could you make the reader gn? If you don't do it already? Also if doing all of the chain is too much you can just choose specific one's, i dont mind who you pick. Anyways thanks for even reading my request and i hope you have a good day!

I'm happy to do this! This is such a good idea and I'm excited to write it. If I didn't do it the qay ypu hoped let me know!

I went for vague crushing vibes on all of them, but Wind's. If this isn't what you had in mind please let me know!

-In alphabetical order and names are in bigger writing than the story parts

Pretty boy (chain)

Pairing: Chain x reader (seperate), Wind & reader

Rating:

Summary: you call the boys 'pretty boy' these are the results

Warnings:

Other: -In alphabetical order and names are in bigger writing than the story parts

-------

Four

You don't necessarily love going shopping. You don't hate it either, but it's not your definition of fun. So obviously you want someone to come with you.

Four is always fun to have around. He's sweet, and he's surprisingly good at haggling down prices.

"Do you need anything else?" Time asks you, eyeing you over and counting off your weapons for self defense.

"Not really." You say, turning towards the path.

You observe the dirt road before turning your head and calling over your shoulder, "Come on, pretty boy, let's go."

The entire group goes still and silent. They're all staring at you.

Why are they staring?

You replay your words. Oh- shit. You called Four pretty boy.

Well- he is a pretty boy but still!

You turn back to the group, taking in their confused expressions before your eyes land on Four.

Well.... You might as well commit.

"Well? Are you coming, pretty boy?" You ask, flashing a smile to show the playful intent behind the question.

Four blinks a few rides. And then points to himself slowly.

"Me?" He asks.

"Yeah, c'mon, pretty boy."

Four gives a little half fought off smile. "Pretty boy?"

"Do you not like the name?"

"No- I like it."

"Good. Come on then, I could use the company." You say.

Four follows you. It's hard to miss the little giddy pep in his step when he seems almost inclined to giggle.

You'll have to call him pretty boy more often!

Hyrule

"You should take someone with you if you're going to the dungeon. It's better with help." Time says evenly, "And take plenty of fariea and potions. Okay?"

"Okay." You say, "Let me grab my things and I'll bring Hyrule."

"Good idea."

You go to your little space in the clearing, grabbing your bag and making sure you have plenty of equipment. You don't like having to rely on other people all the time. No one does.

You finish getting yourself ready before you turn to Hyrule, "Comr on Pretty boy, you're with me.

"Did you just call Hyrule 'pretty boy'?" Legend asks, a sly look crossing his face.

"No!" You defend, face flushing as embarrassment crawls up your spine.

"It's okay!" Hyrule assures quickly, his own ears tinging with a blush. "I like that name!"

"You do?"

"Yeah!"

You smiles a little, glad he isn't upset about it. "Well... good!"

"Soo.... you think I'm pretty?" Hyrule asks, and his grin is anything but innocent.

"Maybe?"

"I knew it! I'm definitely your favorite."

"Good god." You groan, but you can find it in you to really be upset.

If only they weren't all teasing you the rest of the day. Oh, well.

Legend

You find yourself stuck on middle watch, which is the Worst. Capital W and all. Like for first watch you stay up late, last you wake up early.

But middle watch? You get woekn up and then get to try to go back to sleep later.

Gross.

Maybe someone is awake?

You scan the group, finding what is to be expected at this point.

Time sleeps as still as a log, hand one over the other on his chest.

Warriors sleeps like a soilder, light and still but heavy enough all at once.

Wild, Twilight, and Wind are all in a tangled bunch of limbs. Though to your surprise they managed to pull Four and Hyrule into their cuddle puddle tonight.

Sky sleeps all sprawled out and half out of his sleeping roll.

Then you land on Legend- who seems to be trying to get comfortable. Is he awake?

One way to find out.

"Hey! Pretty boy!" You stage whisper at him.

You don't know what possessed you to call him that. But you did, amd you don't think you're wrong.

He actually sits up, looking to you. "What?"

"Oh good, you're awake!"

"No shit. What did you call me?"

"Uh-" you pause, having hoped he would either not care or not notice. "Pretty boy?"

"That's what I thought. You got a crush on me?"

"I can think you're pretty without having a crush!" You hiss out, face flushing with embarrassment.

Maybe he is right.

"Bummer." Legend says, "Here I was thinking you had fallen head over heels for me. Since I'm your pretty boy.c

"Oh my god. Just forget I said it."

"Nope!" Legend says.

"Whyyyyy?" You groan.

Sky

You are over again pulled into upkeep chores that the quest requires. Which, whatever but you wish you weren't stuck on laundry today.

Laundry sucks with only the river, soap, and sun to do it.

Thankfully, you have Sky to help you. He's such a sweetheart that you really do appreciate his help.

So you settle at the river with the pile of clothes and some soap and resign yourself to the repetitive chore.

You cast a look to where Sky is and call out within much thought. "Come on, pretty boy! Might as well get started."

Sky and Twilight both go still before turning their eyes to you. Both looking fairly bewildered.

Oh. You said the 'pretty boy' part out loud. Whoops.

At least it's just Twilight and Sky here. They're not too bad about holding things against you. Usually.

"Me?" Sky questions, looking fairly confused but maybe just a little flattered.

His ears have a hint of pink on them.

How cute!

"Yeah?" You say, but it comes out a lot more like a question then he'd like.

"I've never been called that before."

"Real? Like- not ever?"

"Never.... I like it, though. Please keep calling me that?"

"Sure, if you like."

"I would."

You smile softly, bit your eyes go back to the laundry. "Well come on, pretty boy. We still have laundry to get done."

Time

You'd ask why you're the one who's always in charge of day to day things like groceries, supply runs, socializing, and all of that.... But you've seen the others try. Some are better in these aspects then others- but you are still the best.

So you're in charge of it.

You've already split the work and have the group gathered around you to hand out the assignments.

"Alright, Four, Warriors, and Sky, you're on weapon inventory. Wild, Hyrule, and Twilight's, you're on market duty. Wind and Legend, you're on laundry."

The others all share looks with their task partners.

"Where am I?" Time asks.

You give a smile when you speak, though you swear the nickname is an accident! "Your with me, pretty boy."

Silence.

Complete and utter silence.

Shit.

You said that out loud.

"Did you just-" Time starts.

You cut him off with a tight voice, "Can we please pretend I didn't?"

Warriors just laughs at you, the ass.

"I didn't say I hated it." Time says simply, though you can see the shit eating gleam in his eyes.

Fuck.

"Great. Well, Time, we're on dishes. "

"I thought I was ypur pretty boy."

You feel your face heat up, but you can even care. Why does je have to tease you? Your heart can't take it.

He's so handsome when he's being a menace. Which is a big problem.

Well also the whole he's being a menace thing. That's a bigger problem.

"You're just being mean to (Y/n)," Twilight says helpfully.

"How? I'm just asking why I went from pretty boy to Time."

You just groan, pulling your hands to cover your face.

This is going to be a long day.

Twilight

Why you're left to babysit the stubbornest Links is still beyond you, and yet here you are for the umpteenth time- babysitting them.

Twilight, Warriors, Legend, Wild, and Wind are scattered about the clearing in groups of one or two.

Thankfully, Wild and Wind are on opposite sides of the area and not collaborating to cause trouble.

Unfortunate you hear trouble before you see it.

"Fan out, get low! Pretty boy with me!"

They all turn to look at you as they drop into crouches.

Oh good. You called Twilight pretty boy. And no one knows who you meant. Great.

You groan because that's easier than dealing with feelings.

"You uh, were looking at me when you said- that name.... am- Am I pretty boy?" Twilight asks, and his voice is a little too thick to be played off.

"Yes. Now get over here we don't have much time."

Twilight does, quickly making his way to your side.

He gets there in time to throw a shield over your heads when the arrow start falling. What a gentleman!

When it's all over you can already feel his eyes on you.

"So uh... I'm pretty boy?"

"Yeah, guess you are." You answer him.

"You think I'm pretty?" Twilight asks, and it's both hopeful and heart breaking to hear.

How can he not see that?

"Of course I do. I have eyes." You say, playing off any and all other emotions.

"So... I'm your pretty boy then?"

You just sigh. At least he's having fun. "If you like to be, sure."

Warriors

You actually don't mind going to town to grab supplies, what you fo hate is pickings who goes with you. Sometimes there's no problem, but sometimes the others get pouty if they don't get to go.

Somethings about socialization? Who knows.

But as you're in Warrior's hyrule, he's coming with.

"Alright, pretty boy, let's go." You say as you turn to look at the captain.

Oh, you said that out loud. Shit.

Maybe he missed it?

"What did you just call me?" Warriors asks, and he looks half confused half endeared.

"Uhhhhh-" You blue screen with nearly no idea what's happening.

But you do register embarrassment blooming.

Warriors takes on a smug look as he asks, "You called me pretty boy, right?"

"Yeah. So?" You ask, failing miserably at keeping your cool.

"You think I'm a pretty boy?" He asks, and you swear his ears are tinkered pink.

Why are his ears pink?

Is he- flattered?

"Yeah... You're pretty. You're a boy. Seems pretty straight forwards."

"That's not usually a name I like."

"Oh. Then I'm sorry I called you that."

Warriors shakes his head and gives you a soft look. Earnest and hinging almost on smitten "Actually- I like when you say it."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well, come on then pretty boy." You say, flashing a smile.

"Lead on, (Y/n)."

He links his arm through yours eaaily.

Wild easily.

You find yourself watching Wild as he crouches and waits patiently for the perfect shot. You've been running low on meat lately and you're out here to aid his hunt.

Does ot usually take so long?

You can't tell.

But you would like to have a break from squatting a little behind him.

"Wild." You whisper just barley audible.

He dosen’t seem to here you.

"Wild."

No answer.

"Link?" You call again.

He stil dosen’t respond.

So you try again, "Pretty boy?" You say, words falling out of yourouth without thought or permission.

He stiffens, head whipping around. "(Y/n)?

"Are we even seeing animals to hunt?" You ask softly.

"No- wait- what?"

"How much longer are we going yo sit here? It's been like two hours."

"Twenty minutes. And did you call me pretty boy?"

"Oh- yeah, I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

"Oh... Why?"

"I was thinking we should move to a better place to hunt?"

"Oh... Okay."

"Any ideas on where?" You ask.

"Uh- maybe a hill.... Why did you call me pretty boy?"

"It just slipped out. I won't call you that again though, promise."

"No... Uh- I like the name.... I just don't think I've been called that before."

You have a harder time believing that. Wild really is pretty, has je eveb seen his own face?

"That's surprising. "

"It is?"

"Yeah. It is."

"Well.... I like the name, at least from you." Wild says again, his ears tinged pink and a barley hidden smile present.

"Yeah? You don't want Legend calling you that?"

"Not really."

"That tracks, pretty boy. Come on let's move to a better vantage point."

"Okay." Wild says, and you swear if he were a hardened hero and traveler, he'd be giggling.

Wind

You don't mind being put on foraging duty, especially not when the sailor is your companion. Wind has always been so fun to be around. The kid is like a brother to you almost.

He's a few feet away, digging through a mess of greenery that seems pretty weird to you, but he seems happy. And thats good.

"Hey, (Y/n)?" Wind asks, turning his eyes to you.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Are these those poisonous berries Wild showed us?"

You squint as you scrutinize the purple berries Wind holds up. They definitely look similar.

"I'm not sure. Better leave them alone to be safe, though."

Wind sighs, "I thought you'd say that."

"Then why even ask, pretty boy?"

You don't know why you said it, but you did, and he's a cute kid. So whatever. It's honest, at least.

"What?"

"What part are you confused about, kiddo?"

"Why did you call me pretty boy? Is that an insult?"

"No, Wind, it's not an insult. Not from me at least."

"Oh. Good!"

You bite back the laugh that bubbles up from your throat, trying not to he overtly rude. His fave is definitely one you'll remember.

Wind looks pleased, and maybe a little embarrassed. But the glee behind his eyes is genuine.

"So, I'm your pretty boy?"

"Sure kid." You say, trying again not to laugh.

He's cute, in that kid way with the too big grin.

"The others are gonna be SO jealous!"

You do laugh this time, warm and bright, and glad to see him happy.

"Be nice, Wind."

"Never!" He calls as he starts foraging again.

#misty writes #linkeduniverse #lu #linked universe x reader #misty answers #amistakehadhappened #lu time #lu wild #lu legend #lu hyrule #lu warriors #lu four #lu sky #lu twilight #lu wind #lu chain #lu chain x reader

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mushroomwoods · 1 year

Text

fear(less)

After a few months of travelling together it was only to be expected that they would catch onto your little habits, especially if it was one that put you in harms way so many times.

characters — Chain, romantic or platonic (platonic only!Wind)

warnings — gore&blood, !depiction of deep wounds!, canon-typical violence, reader is reckless™ and has no sense of self-preservation, a sliver of harmful thoughts (sky!time!), poorly described battles; mild angst with comfort (hyrule!), hints of player!au.

Wow, i finally finished this thing, took me longer than i thought. Anyways, there are a few parts that don't really follow the game line of battle, as I've adapted some things just... because i thought it'd be fun, but i hope you guys enjoy it all the same. Also tagging the dearest @cloudninetonine, didn't know which blog you would prefer so i used the one more related to LU, i hope it is up to your standards, Cloud. also, i said twi part was long? you can't wait to see legend's then.

At first it wasn't anything too eye catching.

The heroes already knew you were... hopeless when it came to fighting, the few experiences in combat you had beside them proved as much, and they didn't mind it, you helped them enough around the camp, always eager to do something when it was possible.

And while they did train you enough to at least hold out on your own in urgent cases, they didn't expect you to become a seasoned warrior like most of them, you had no need or obligation to, after all, not being bound by duty like them.

However, a few experiences in battle were enough to prove them, that yes, your less than ideal choices, were, against all odds, made rationally.

Timeʼ

It was an oversight.

A terribly, horrid, oversight.

One that, goddess fobid, could've costed your life, as you full on charged at the monster trapping him under it's claw, sending both you and the shadow beast toppling over, a disorienting groan falling from your lips as you crashed onto the floor, barely escaping the clawed hands that reached out for you, your unsteady dominant hand, trying to grip hard enough at the hilt of your sword so you could finally, finally, thrust it into the dizzying mark in it's chest.

And then, as it lifted, ready to pounce back into your form, you got the chance to see it's weakness, barely, but enough. With not an ounce of hesitation, you gave up trying to make your, now useless, dominant hand to obey you, and switched you weapon, lurching under the monster and stabbing the glowing red skin, a surge of black blood dripping into your face and clothes as the monster disappeared into itself.

“Name!” Time finally got it into himself to call you out, armored form rushing to your side at an abnormal speed.

You looked back at him, still a very gruesome, bloody messy as you gave him a victorious grin, but he couldn't find it in himself to worry about that in the moment, just wanting to check if you were too injured from the battle, but just as he was two steps in, your face morphed into something akin to panic, stumbling hurriedly into your own feet and frantically running to him.

“Wait! Beside you!” Your shout was enough to alert him, shield quickly lifted as he bashed the monster into the ground, yet, his vision blurred at the sudden movement, body still weak from the hit he'd taken previously.

He felt your hand on his back, trying to keep him steady as the other swung the blade in front of you, the metal making an annoying screech as it made contact with the black mask, which only seemed to anger the monster further, pushing forward at an ungodly speed with it's tentacles trashing around.

In the heat of the moment, you mustered all the strength you could, pushing the hero to the side — a feat that was only possible because of his weakened state — as you took the full impact, body falling to the ground with a crushing thud, you winced, but still pushed forward, the blood pumping through your body giving you the last bit of adrenaline you needed to finally ground the monster, watching it slowly disappear as the aches in your body only now started to settle.

You could hear Time thunderous voice from beside you, but it sounded so distant, yet so loud, you could only close your eyes in hopes the tinning in your ears would stop.

You felt a cool hand — a metal plate? — settling against your burning cheeks, Time eye scanning you fully, rambling quickly about something as he seemed to shout to someone on the other side of the battlefield, you tried to laugh at his worry, only being able to hack a cough, throat clogged with blood.

You could see him turning his head back to you, mouthing a “don't leave me yet” at you, you grinned.

“Not before you, old man.” You saw him frown and was quick to add. “Don' worry, 'ts not the time yet.” You couldn't wait for his answer, face drooping into his shoulder as your vision blackened.

You could only hope he would lessen his nagging from next time you woke up, pitying your battered state.

Twilightʼ

It seemed that ever since he got into this adventure, with eight other unsettling versions of himself, plus an unassuming you, his luck whenever he transformed with the twili magic pummelled — yes, even more than in his own aventure, wasn't he sufficiently unlucky during his trials.

It was an unfamiliar Hyrule, and both you and him, well, Wolfie, had assumed the responsability of checking the sorrounding areas for any threat.

And what a threat it had, a swarm of dynalfos madly chasing after the both of you, a few too rough swing of their weapons barely catching at your tearing tunic as you tried tirelessly to keep up with the wolf speed.

“Fuck! I thought these bastards didn't wander in groups, what the heck are they even doing out in the open!?” As much as Twilight would like to agree with you at the moment, he could only let out a huff in the bestial form.

You gritted your teeth, pushing your legs until they were burning with the strain, never losing speed in fear they might actually catch up with you, as you rummaged through your backpack, probably looking for anything that might work, since your sword proved to be pretty damn useless against their gauntlets.

“Hey Wolfie, do you trust me?” He barely spared you a glance, quickly noticing the bomb you recklessly lightened in your arms. “Because if you don't, you might as well go on your own way.”

He tried to yelp as you didn't let go of the bomb even as the fire engulfed almost all of the rope, your hands shaking in what he assumed to be fear, though at this point it might as well be excitement, with the maddening smirk that played in your lips.

Waves of roars and shrieks resounded behind the both of you just as you threw the bomb back, the object exploding not even a few seconds after, as you made sure to hold it until the last possible second, so they wouldn't be able to throw the object back at you and make the situation even worse. Flames licked just short of your backs, threatening to burn both the strap of your leather bag and the tip of Wolfie's tail.

You cussed under your breath, legs stopping, as you turned around to face the enemies, now finally weakened enough for the both of you to at least try to face head on.

“If I'm right, they're from the captain's Hyrule, so we don't have much time to take them down.” You saw the wolf tail flick, as if in understanding, and you took that as a signal to rush foward, hearing his steps right behind you.

You surged foward, striking the monsters with the barely retained memories of the hellish training the captain had drilled into you, almost finishing off your enemies when you heard your companion yelp, a dinolfo having grabbed at his tail just as he tackled another of the oversized lizards into the ground, just as he was about to turn, ready to maul whatever got him, a wooden shield flew past his nose, right into the monster head, sending it into it's back, completely unmoving.

When the both of you were finally finished, it was nothing more than a gory mess, guts splattered all over as the both of you laid in the midst of the atrocious visage, panting and bleeding, the man long since turned into his original form, throwing all his care into the wind as he made himself comfortable beside you.

“We have to report it back to them, especially since these fuckers must be from the captain world.” You muttered, breathing heavy as you tried to lift your arm, only a groan making it past your mouth.

The man laid beside you only mumbled in agreement, not actually moving to get up, and actually throwing an arm over your body, making sure you wouldn't get out of there until the two of you at least got some rest.

Yeah, he could let the nagging wait a bit more, for now the thought of a little rest just seemed so much better than going back only to hear how reckless the both of you were to actually act alone.

He then frowned as if remembering something, face turning to you.

“How many times did we tell ya not to thrown the shield.” His voice was exasperated and you all but glared at him.

“Ah c'mon! It works!”

Warriorsʼ

“Get down!” A cry in your voice was enough for the warrior to follow through your orders, barely dodging a monster attack on the right as you nimbly shifted to his side, blocking an aerial attack with the shield Wild had lent to you weeks ago.

He hadn't thought much of the occurrence, as one of the archers in the group quickly sent the monster down, and you dealing a final blow without much trouble, what he didn't expect, however, was to find you barely a few hours after the battle kneeled beside a water body trying to wash down an conspicuous amount of blood off the arm you had previously wielded the shield with.

“Name? Did you get hurt? You could've asked me for a potion if your stock ran off, Hyrule would've also helped, we didn't have many casualties today.” He was quick to close off the distance, even as you seemed to do your best to avoid any type of contact with the hero.

“The stock is running low...” You started, low voice, but as he didn't budge, waiting for a more plausible excuse you saw no choice but to continue. “and there's still shards in my arm, it wouldn't be helpful to heal it as it is.”

Azure eyes ran over what he previously thought to be only stains and clogs of blood over the grass, only now noticing how it shimmered under the light, pieces of what seemed to be freshly cut flesh clinging into the sharper edges.

Warriors rushed to your side, hands grabbing firmly at your shoulder and wrist, fresh blood quickly oozing into his own pristine robes, but he didn't mind, not as he noticed just how serious what he thought to only be a light wound actually was. He suppressed a frustrated groan as he heard in inhale sharply at his prodding in the less open part of the wounds.

“How did this happen?” His voice was sharp, clearly not giving you a chance to even try and escape from him.

“Nothing...” A sharp glare was enough to make you stop, clearing your throat before continuing. “The kargarocs clawed at my arm just as Wild's shield shattered. It was just that, besides, it's not as bad as it look.”

The way you winced when his fingers flexed a little too harshly around your wrists was enough to betray your own words, yet you didn't back down, not until you saw Link's face morphing from a frown into the most —fake— dashing smile you've seen him send your way.

“If it's not that bad, then i guess you wouldn't mind a little help.” The way his eyes didn't match his smile was enough of a warning of the hell he'd put you through for not taking care of yourself in the first place.

“Wait, no—”

Your loud scream resonated through the quiet forest, as the man all but huffed, taking out the shards littering your arms with a gentle, yet rigid touch.

Too bad, it was already too late, maybe this way you'll learn to stay out of trouble next time.

Hyruleʼ

He couldn't say he was thrilled to get back to his own Hyrule, while, yes, it was comforting to recognize the vegetation around, much like the many hiding spots he found during his tireless adventures, he still felt much too paranoid to parade around the existing bustling town, a gnawing feeling at the back of his head saying — screaming — that as long as he was there, the hunt for his head would prevail.

So with such thoughts, he didn't think much of letting you talk with some of the locals, much too unrelated to the hero to pose any apparent threat to the villagers, as he hid himself just short of your eyesight, as the both of you waited for the rest of the group to buy whichever necessities you were still lacking from the journey.

What he didn't expect was to suddenly hear an almost guttural growl from you, as you tensed up from the previously amicable chat, his body turning just in time to see you land a punch straight into the other person nose, blood cascading instantly down your fist.

From there it went downhill, the other two person joining in the brawl you seemed to start without a care as Hyrule rushed to your side, trying to both protect you, while also pulling you out of the fight.

“Stop that, Hyrule! I'll kill those bastards!” You voice resounded with so much unfiltered hatred, that he considered that your threats may actually turn out be true, wasn't he quick enough to act.

He had always thought of you as calm and collected, a little silly sometimes, but that was about it, yet as he saw you snarling at the opposing group, having to almost wrestle you out of the place, he could see just how soft you actually were to the group of heroes.

The traveller regretted having put out his power bracelet in fear of hurting anyone too much, as throwing your fighting form over his shoulder and setting back proved to be much harder than when he did same with the usual pacific you, his steps thumped loudly against the dry grass, the sound of angered shouts getting more and more distant with the passing seconds, along with your own, which died into tiny sobs and hiccups.

When he noticed your chasers weren't on your tails anymore, he finally stopped, breathing hagged as he carefully lowered you to the floor, hands instantly coming to cup your face carefully, thumbing at the tears, worried expression as he checked your body for any wounds, his magic making quick work on any he spotted.

“Now now, what's the problem? What happened.” He watched as the tears didn't stop, yet you frowned in annoyance.

Not at him, of course. Never at him.

You pursed your lips, teeth gritting as you finally started talking, a sigh falling regretfully from your lips.

“Those bastar—” A quiet hush from him forced you to stop, his eyes never letting yours leave his. “They” You growled “were acting like you were nothing more than a curse. It's not fair that you get this type of treatment after all you did to save those people.”

His smile grew a little, strong arms engulfing you in a warm hug, your own slithering across his back naturally as he leaned into your shoulder.

“I don't care about those things.” Not for as long as I have you. “But thank you, Name.” His soft hum was quiet against your ear, and that was all the comfort the both of you could ever need, tightly wound in each other embrace.

Legendʼ

Legend was against the whole plan.

Especially when it took place with you acting as the bait, taking the unlucky lot while they drawed each person role.

He gritted his teeth, looking regretfully at the Pegasus Boot and the defense ring he placed in your hands, while you laughed awkwardly.

“You don't have to give me that, you know. I know how to battle, maybe not as much as you guys, but I can handle on my own.” You tried, pushing the items back into his hands, but he stepped back before you would force him to take, his frown only getting deeper.

“I know.” Was his only answer, to which you quirked your brow quizzically and he huffed. “We all watched your progress in battle, still, it just feels wrong to leave someone behind.”

Warriors was about to make a teasing comment about his unusual character, when Twilight jabbed at him, forcing the knight to bend over.

Time sighed as he watched the veteran so restless, drawing the attention back to him.

“Then the veteran stays back with Name.” The oldest sent a teasing smirk your way, which the others seemed to not notice, as he turned back to the rest of the group. “The rest of us will go as planned, Wild come with me, Warriors with Wind and Hyrule with Twilight. Get ready by the doors and make sure to come back before the time runs out.”

You prepared to start the mechanism of the dungeon, pulling the lever when the acting leader nodded. You and the veteran watched as they all disappeared into the passages, stone doors closing behind them as soon as they left, leaving the place you stood only barely lightened by the scarce torches lit around the walls.

The first wall to light up was the one in the right, where the traveller and ranch hand had disappeared into, both you and Legend walking up to it to take a closer look at the glowing blue scriptures.

“Only when the sun is lit, can the lost ones be found.”

It was easy enough, you looked around the room, soon finding a tile carved with the sun marking, Legend didn't think much before using the fire rod on it, the first pillar lightening up in blue, the form of a child carved into it.

The second wall lightened up, this time from Wars and Wind side.

“Only a cup of water can sate one's thrist.”

Sound of dripping water started to resonate around the room, the statue glow dimming as the child now bent over it's form, tears welling down the pillar. You took the bowl beneath it, already half full as you looked back at your partner, who pointed at the drying flower who bloomed among the stone path. You watered it, the flower blooming back to life, a golden key appearing between it's petals. The veteran didn't think much before picking it up, the second pillar lighting up with a garden.

As the third and last wall lightened up, the torches were blow off, all lights around the room turning from a soft blue to bloody red.

"A true warrior may carve it's path upon the enemies blood.”

Gears started to sound around the room, the torches blow off and the only light around now being the poor scriptures that barely let you count the fingers in your hands.

The child statue now stood as a imposing adult holding a sword, the tears that fell turning into a river of blood, and the garden pillar now turning into a fire caught wasteland.

A opening appeared on the ceiling, in which Keeses started pouring over like ants, Legend took the fire rod, knowing that with a single hit he could take at least a few of them down, however just as he was about to shot the magic, it died down altogether.

“What!?” He shouted exasperated, trying again in a futile attempt.

You looked at him, drawing your bow, hoping to even get a few down from how bad your eyesight got in the dark place.

He followed your example, grumpy about his malfunctioning item as he gripped onto his sword, taking down any that got too close to the floor.

As you were finally setting a rhythm, you started hearing a buzzing, looking into the hero direction the see the electro keese closing in on him.

“Vet!” You hand hooked at the hero tunic, all but throwing him to the other side, the monster reaching you as it's electric aura engulfed your body in an excruciating pain.

...

Or not. You blinked, looking up from your kneeling form, the hero running up to your side, as a disheveled mess, trying to look for injuries on your body, the red lights returning to a blue hue, and torches lighting back as the doors clinked open.

“But only true heroes won't think before saving a dear one.” The sailor voice sounded behind you, apparently reading the newly lightened wall who led you to the next room. “Whatever happened to the both of you here?” He asked, confused face as he stared at the both of you.

As you and Legend looked at each other face, clear confusion written all over it, the both of you nodded at each other.

“Nothing.”

Wildʼ

Wild could somehow feel the consequences of his actions catching up with him.

His hands tightened around your wrist, tugging you along with him as you ran from the lynel positively huffing like a bull as it ran behind you. He felt like this would be the feeling Twilight felt whenever he saw him running to do some things stupid.

Why did he just have to give in to your pleading eyes when you asked him to show you how to hunt a lynel?

He could see you stealing glances at the monster from the corner of his eyes, your figure pretty much laid back even when you knew — or at least he thought so — that thing could send you flying with a single hit.

When it's axe was lifted, you shifted to the side, pulling Wild out of its reach and almost sending the both of you colliding to the floor.

“I think I understand it now!” You shouted at him, blood pumping so hard from the adrenaline you almost couldn't hear yourself.

And with that, Wild felt a bad sense of premonition, his gut sinking as he recognizer that look on your face. The same look he had when he first tried to beat a lynel, before he was beaten half to death and ran back to formulate another plan, and while it was... well, different from the first, it certainly wasn't optimal.

He looked at you, face bewildered as he whisper shouted a “no”, hand tightening around yours as if he was the leash keeping a child from doing something idiotic, yet you only huffed and rolled your eyes.

“You do it, why can't I?” You whined and he considered begging for Twilight's forgiveness for every shit he put his mentor through. “Besides, you're here to help me, we can just retreat if you think it's getting too dangerous.”

He sighed, before pointing to the bottom of the hill, a large lake surrounding the area.

“If it get dangerous I'll use cryonis and we'll get out of here, no if's and but's, okay?” You grumbled out and his eyes thinned. “Okay?” He repeated himself.

“Okaaaay.” You drawled out, charging to the point he pointed, letting go of his hand as he attracted the lynel to he area.

It started fairly well, he attracted the monster to him while you shot it from the side, his bow trainings paying off as you hadn't hit the blonde man a single time yet. And hopefully you wouldn't for the rest of the battle.

Just as you were about to pull the last arrow, you saw the shining, massive axe in the hands of the lynel start flying towards your direction, the young hero quickly telling you to run towards the lake.

Your mind raced as you thought of your options, eyes flashing from Link's place near the lake to the weapon flying your way sickeningly fast, the bow dropping from your hand as you took the claymore strapped to your hip.

Wild's face dropped, heart sinking as he could already read your thoughts. Damned be the day he tried to teach you how to parry.

You waited. Waited. Wait... And then with a sharp, deafening sound the ginormous weapon was sent flying, it lasted less than a second, yet for you it seemed as if the world had stopped, you felt like you could understand, even if a little, when Wild talked about how the world seemed to slow down around him when he was battling.

Before you could turn to the hero to celebrate, you felt a heavy punch landing into the side of your head, sending you flying back, vision wavering.

He would have to teach you not to take your eyes off the enemies in battle it seemed, he sighed running up to finish dealing with the monster before you were too beaten up.

Windʼ

It was just your luck.

The dungeon had separated the whole group, and while you weren't too worried about only you and Wind forming a duo, you were quite worried for whose world it was now.

All of the heroes eras were quite the catastrophe, however Time's was an utter mess, especially with the happenings of Majora Mask he had to deal while still a child.

You gritted your teeth, pulling the younger one beside you by the arm, as he whined something about being able to take them on.

“Look Wind, I know you're competent and all, I also understand that you know how to deal with them, however you have to understand that these are not the ReDeads from back at your world.” You pursed your lips as you heard their screeching approaching.

The young hero huffed, finally accompanying your steps on his own, instead of being dragged like dead weight.

“So, any plan?” His pout was very much visible, in your mind at least, as the corridors were dark enough for you to trip over your own feet sometimes.

“You betcha, sailor.” You only hoped it would actually work. “Think you could play a song right now?”

You could feel Wind's judgemental stare right through your skull, but when you did nothing but press him for an answer he giggled madly.

“I don't know what you're brewing up, but I hope it'll be fun.” The boy grabbed onto your hand, sprinting even faster, pulling you through some many doors and corridors of what you thought to be the correct path, until you could see a few barely visible flashs of light streaming down from the ceiling, the first room you had fallen into when you first entered the dungeon, the bars showing only enough for the both of you to see the shadow of your faces, giggling as if the monsters that followed you wouldn't just up and kill the both of you with as much as a single touch.

You quickly scampered further into the light, knowing it would only be enough to slow them down for a little, before you started talking lowly, not considering the earlier fits of laugh would be enough to alert all of the monsters around of your exact position.

“I assume you don't have your mirror with you.” The sailor nodded, almost rolling his eyes at the predictability, but before he could voice his complaints you continued. “But you wouldn't come without your wand, right?”

He now raised an eyebrow, mouthing an “Of course”, as you nodded to yourself.

“Let's pray that it counts as an magical instrument, get it and try to follow the music I'll hum to you.” You barely got him any chance to process before humming the Sun Song you'd grew so familiar over the time.

The boy just looked at you as if you were crazy, grabbing onto the item and hurriedly trying to follow along, a few tries in and the both of you huffed, patience running thin as a strew of curses fell from the boys lips, something you thanked the goddess above that the Hero of Time or the Hero of Twilight weren't there to see.

You groaned, exasperated, as the monsters were now only a few feet away from you both, you pressed him further up into the wall, fully covering his body from the monsters view, almost like a living bait, a thing he'd certainly nag at you later.

In the desperation you whistled the song, praying it was sufficiently in tune for him to relate to the sound of the wind he often listened to while on his journey.

“C'mon, three, three, five!” You prayed, a phantom touch at your neck sending chills down your spine as if sucking your life force, while you tried to whistle the tune again.

“Got it!” He exclaimed, a whirlwind forming around you both as the light shone even brighter above the both of you, almost like the salvation light, the wave of monster falling slowly with shrill screams, one you'd hope to never hear again.

You finally let go of his arms, body trembling so much you could only topple down as tears streamed down your cheeks, the bone chilling presence of their touch still very much vivid in you mind, as the younger one could only rub your shoulders soothingly, knowing full well you took most of the hits in order to keep him safe.

He sighed, resolved to let your actions slide this one time, with a tired smile.

“Thank you for trying to protect me, let's rest a little and then well go back to the others.” His voice was way less chirpier than usual, you nodded, leaning one against the other, finally able to get a breather under the warm light casted over the two of you.

Skyʼ

It was somewhat stupid, honestly.

You knew fully well that all of those men had full capacity to take over at least a dozen monsters more than you, without even breaking a sweat, no less, especially the local lazy eyed hero who seemed to enjoy his little naps a little more than it was healthy and just happened to take over a god all by himself.

You knew it, yes, but your stupid body decided to move before your brain could fully process what was even happening.

“Sky, that...” You lightly tugged at the hem of the skyloftian armor, eyes focused on the strange spikes fluctuating dangerously beside the hero.

The form seemed familiar, but you only were able to fully recognize it when little eyes peeked through the sand wasteland, the man beside you now standing in full alert as his eyes seemed to catch onto the same thing as you.

The whole group stopped, now looking back at the two of you, but as you tried to point towards the enemy to explain you wouldn't have to battle as long as you avoided it's vision, you could see from the corner of your eyes one of the more reckless from the group charge full on at the little monster.

“Wait, it'll explode!” Sky tried to warn, a little too late as it's body expanded, sending projectiles of poisonous darts around.

Thankfully Wild was quick enough to react a pull a shield to protect himself, and the others were far enough not to get in the way, however as both you and the Hero of the Skies were the one who stood closer to it, you had taken the full brunt of the blow, fully ducking the hero behind your form.

You gasped as you felt the thorns ripping through your flesh, the feeling way more painful than you had expected at first, tears prickling at the corner of your eyes as you all but hollered at Wild.

“Don't go touching it, you dumbass! Just blow it away!” You winced when the hero held in your arms moved to trace the sides of your wounds, a wince of his own sounding as he saw his bloodied gloves.

“Don't move, it'll hurt.” Sky voice was still collected, but you could see his eyes wavering a bit, knowing full well how terrible it was to receive one of these attacks head on, he sighed. “Why did you protect me? My armor was enough to take it.”

It was unusual to hear the usually so pacific hero grumbling around like that, but you could barely focus on that as you felt his hands making quick work of removing the most superficial ones from your skin, the scalding hot feeling of the poison in the open wounds soon melting off as Hyrule made a quick work of staying beside you to heal the wounds.

“I panicked, besides, if it was a black blooded monster, who knew what else he'd— shit! Do?” You felt your knees weakening, even as he held you upright, so you gave in to muffling a cry into his shoulder as he took off a particularly hard spike buried in the side of your waist.

“So you did this even considering it was a mutated monster?” You could feel he bit off another sigh. “Really, you're the only one reckless enough to throw yourself in to protect a hero.” He patted your head in a comforting touch to tell it was over. “But don't go thinking I'm not mad at you and Wild. The both of you should stop acting so recklessly already, it'll worry all of us.”

You could hear Wild whining off at some distance, as you held the urge to do the same, as you knew the boy could be as scary as Time if pushed far enough.

Fourʼ

The short hero was quite used to be underestimated, and at first he thought you'd fall under the same category of people who judged his strength based on his height alone.

It was a pleasant surprise for him when he could finally notice your protectiveness came from a place of care, actually.

What wasn't pleasant, however, was how, no matter how much you knew that the hero was much stronger than you, you couldn't let go of this worrisome habit of always putting his safety and comfort before yours.

Especially now, where you, and the four parts of the little hero battled away against a wave of skulltulas, the monsters easy enough for you and the four heroes to tackle on, however their sheer amount was enough to give you a harder time dealing with them.

You sidestepped, back meeting with Green's, hearing him chuckle before branding his sword to the right, striking down two of the monsters with a single attack, you and Red joining hands so the smaller one could easily acess the weak spot of a specially tough one.

However, things seemed way messier at the other side, Blue and Violet having to deal with just as much as the three of you, while also sparing jabs at each other, harsh comments over the other clumsiness as they rashly brandished their sword, clearly tired of the long running battle.

“It doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.” You muttered, both of the man beside you nodding in agreement. “Should we just take off?” You offered, an instant disagreement falling from both Blue and Violet.

“If its a swarm this big, it could reach one of the nearby cities.” Red made an actual helpful comment, to which you sighed.

You held your tongue, knowing none of them would appreciate you making any comments about their far too heroic side, putting your focus back on the battle.

It didn't take much longer for the wave of Skulltulas to actually start to thin out and finally take the last one on. Tge five of you finally lowered you weapons, watching as the last of the enemies disappear in a black mist.

The only sound now being your heavy breathings and the rustling of the trees above you. You looked up, heaving a sight and watching as the leaves above your head danced from one side to another along with the wind, only now noticing a strange light, or actually, a lack thereof.

“Hey guys..?” You started, as they looked at you. “I guess i know why they were so mad at us now.” They followed your line of sight, a gasp sounding behind you, which you didn't bother naming whose it was.

A skulltula — if you could even call it that, at this point — hung over the trees, it's web big enough to cover a whole house, the monster only shying a little in question of size.

“Are you guys sure you still want to play hero?” Surprisingly, it wasn't you this time, but Violet.

You shook you head, already knowing their answers, as you hooked your fingers under your bow, pulling one arrow and readying to fire under their command.

“Well.... like it or not, we are heroes.” Blue stated, giving you the signal.

You shoot the arrow, the object hitting bullseye into one of the monster's eye, not that it was too difficult from it's sheer size.

With a thundering roar, it dropped down from it's web, the natural floor shaking under your feet as you stepped back to gain the distance advantage this time, the split hero standing in front of you to act like a bait.

The four of them each had gone to one side of the monster, as you made another clear shot, this time taking one of its hind leg, the blood spraying in a somewhat gruesome way you hadn't had the chance to notice when fighting the smaller one.

Just as you were about to shot another of its legs, you heard a groan, Blue falling to the ground as the monster charged into him. You gritted your teeth, lowering the bow as you pulled your sword from your waist and running up to him without a second thought, stopping in front of him, and parrying the oncoming attacks however you could as Blue still seemed disoriented from the fall.

What you didn't take into account was how heavy it's attack would be now that it had the added weight of it's sheer size, you lightly hissed when it's fang bit into your left shoulder, almost dropping the weapon out of reflex, but you clenched your jaw, forcing your fingers to remain flexed into the sword hilt, then thrusting it into the spider's many eyes when it finally let go of you, it's bug juice overflowing into you and your wound, only making it sting more.

Barely a few seconds after you could see the monster disappearing, as Violet and Green each cut one side of the monster, the skulltula disappearing into a black matter quickly as you heaved a sigh, the five of you finally regrouping into the center of the clearing.

“Did I already say that I hate spiders? Because if not, now I do.” Violet said, clearly disheartened at the whole ordeal, to which you only nodded in agreement.

#lu hyrule #lu time #lu legend #lu wild #lu wind #lu sky #lu twilight #lu four #lu warriors #linked universe x reader #i don't know how to tag this there are too many people sjdkxnxkd #link x reader #fungi's delicacies

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hugsandchaos · 6 months

Text

Proper Introductions

Summary: Proper introductions to the group leads to Danny getting a new wardrobe and a sword.

Credit for the armor design goes to @nerdypear4!! Thank you so, so much for allowing me to use your design in the story!!

Word count: 3,258

“So what’s your name?” Wind asked. He and Wolfie walked on both sides of the new member. The early afternoon sun shone through the branches and made the stranger’s dark hair and Wolfie’s dark fur look a little funny when they passed under those spots. The stranger looked at him with eyes a shade of light blue that reminded Wind of ice. He couldn’t be much younger than some of the others, but he was definitely a little bit older than Wind.

The three heroes, four if you count Wolfie, were heading back towards the rest of the group with their newest temporary member in tow. The stranger seemed to snap out of some sort of trance and glanced at him.”My name’s Daniel, but pretty much everyone just calls me Danny. What about you?” He asked. His odd bag on his back made a slightly funny noise as he walked, probably just the contents inside, like that weird red bag from earlier. He’d tightened the straps earlier to prevent it from moving around, so it was practically hugging him. Wind had seen big bags before, but that one was odd.

Wind almost said “Link”, but managed to stop and correct himself.“Well, we all have the same name, so we go by nicknames based off our adventures. I’m Wind, and I have a lot of questions.” He said.

“Me too. You go first.” Danny said. For a split second, the corners of his mouth moved upwards in a smile.

“First, why are your ears round?” Wind asked. Up ahead, Sky and Hyrule both froze and were going to turn around to silently scold Wind. They didn’t know why, either, but for all they know, it could’ve been something he’s had since birth and didn’t like talking about. Yet Danny only looked surprised for a split second before answering.

“Uh, I think the only explanation I can give is the fact that I’m a human.” He replied. Human. The three of them remembered that word. Sky was constantly mistook for one on his adventure, and Twilight mentioned that he grew up in a village full of them. It was also him to explain that probably the only physical difference between them was the fact that humans had round ears while hylians had pointed ears. Not everyone paid attention to that detail, so it wasn’t a surprise that Sky was mistook for one.

The two older heroes continued ahead, with Sky leading them. Wind briefly eyed that part of Danny, not really paying attention to the path ahead.“So you’re not a hylian? Huh.” He said, taking on a more suspicious tone than he meant to. He fixed his expression and smiled.”Your turn.” He said, turning back to look ahead.

“Cool. Where are we?” Danny asked. They all took a step over a fallen log, and both Danny and Wind paused to make sure Wolfie hopped over okay.

“Faron Woods, my world.” Sky replied.

“Never heard of that place, but okay.” Danny said, turning to Wind.”What’s your next question?” He asked.

The young hero had lots of questions, and it was a little hard to pick the next one. He ultimately decided on one Hyrule would probably ask him soon as well.“You were stitching up your wound earlier. Are you a doctor?” He asked.

Danny shook his head.“No, I’m far from the real thing. It’s just that... It’s just something I picked up, I guess?” He said with a shrug.”One of my friends is a doctor, and I was curious about a few things, so I asked a couple questions. Next thing I know, he’s teaching me how to treat my own wounds incase he’s not around.” He explained.

“There you guys are!”

Wind and Danny looked up towards the front of the group. Legend was walking towards them looking a little relieved and annoyed at the same time. When he noticed Danny, however, his expression hardened into a glare.”Who is that?” He asked. Danny stopped mid-step for a second, but then continued as if he never stopped. It lasted barely long enough for Wind to notice. Danny opened his mouth to respond, but Sky spoke first.

“Let’s meet up with the rest of the group first. This is important.” He said. Legend gave Danny another glare, but didn’t argue and turned around to walk with them the rest of the way. After ending up in Sky’s world, but on the ground instead of the sky, he led them to some ruins that would provide some cover if they decided to camp there since some of them were nervous about making repeated journeys up and down.

After getting back to the rest of the group, Sky immediately went to explaining why the kid they brought back with them was now a member of the group. Danny glanced nervously between all of them and tensed up a little with the several pairs of eyes on him as Sky spoke.”The sword said that he’s from another world,” was how he started the conversation. No one even got a chance to ask who Danny was or what he was doing following them.

“What?” Time asked, taking on a more serious tone than normal. He glanced over at Danny, who briefly froze before shrugging his shoulders.

“I hardly know what happened myself. I was just walking through the woods and it opened up from underneath me! Then it just spat me back out somewhere over there.” He explained, pointing back the way they came with his thumb. Either he was acting less upset than he was or talking calmed him down somehow, because he grew less tense when he told his brief story. Wolfie stood next to him, occasionally glancing at his side. Probably eyeing the bandages underneath his shirt.

It was confusing how the boy had gotten comfortable with Wolfie so quickly seeing as he wasn’t freaking out over him being so close, but they weren’t going to ask that. Not yet, at least.

After a moment of silence and shared glances, Four approached him.”I’m Four. Do you remember anything besides the portal? A black lizalfos, maybe?” He asked.

“Danny, and no. I don’t even know what a lizalfos is, but I think I hit something on my way down, before I hit the ground in front of whatever that red, ugly thing was.” Danny said, briefly introducing himself before getting to the point. That response was... worrying.

The fact that he didn’t know what a lizalfos was, and apparently hadn’t seen a bokoblin before a few minutes ago, didn’t sound good if he was going to be traveling with them. Unless his world just didn’t have those, but still had monsters. That thought brought a bit of relief to the group. While it would be a neat thing to have a world with no monsters at all, as surprising as that sounds, that could mean that Danny had no experience fighting them. That would be pretty bad.

He didn’t appear to have any weapons or shields on him, unless they were in his backpack. He didn’t seem to have any armor on, either. Unless he knew a thing or two about using weapons, but just didn’t have them. Sky opened his mouth to speak his thoughts of lending him a sword and teach him if need be, but Danny interrupted.”Thanks again for the save, by the way.” He said, glancing at the group’s furry companion. Wolfie huffed and nodded, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards slightly.

“Wolfie helped you?” Four asked. Sky’s face fell a little. He would wait until Danny explained, but he hoped it’d be quick. Danny looked back up at Four.

“Yeah. Not gonna lie, I thought he was a husky because of his fur color.” He replied. Before anyone asked anything else, Sky took the chance to get their attention again and cleared his throat. Four and Danny both turned to him, along with everyone else.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I think we have a more important issue here. Daniel, have you ever faced a monster before?” Sky asked. Danny hesitated before answering, looking thoughtful before shaking his head.

“No, not really. I don’t think I’ve even seen one until now.” He said. The atmosphere changed drastically, and the silence that followed his answer was a little heavier with the realization that he was basically defenseless. No armor, no weapons, and no knowledge of monsters?! The decision seemed obvious, especially as they glanced between each other. Danny seemed to come to a similar realization as his expression shifted to worry.”How many are there?” He asked.

“A lot.” Legend said, reaching into his bag. He rummaged around before pulling out a tunic and undershirt. He walked over to Danny and handed them to him.”Here, these will give you better protection than that shirt and coat.“ He said. Danny seemed a little surprised and very quickly glanced up at his face, then back at the clothes, before reaching out and accepting the not-so-negotiable offer.”Do you have any knowledge or experience with bows, swords, or other weapons?” Legend asked.

“Thank you. And as much as I don’t want to admit this because of how you’ve all reacted so far, no. In fact, swords and bows are hardly used in my world. Not a lot of people to learn from.” Danny said. Everyone else pretty much guessed the first part would be the answer, but the bit about swords and bows not being used much in his world was a surprise. As much as it caught them off guard, the logic behind why he didn’t know how to use those weapons made sense.

“What about your bag?” Warriors asked.

“I don’t really recall packing a weapon, but I’ve forgotten when I have or haven’t packed something, so maybe I did.” Danny replied. He held the tunic and undershirt close to himself while he slid one of his arms out of the straps, then allowed it to slip down his other arm and caught it with his hand before it would fall off completely. Danny knelt down and placed the bag on the ground, supported by his leg.

He grabbed the dangling piece of metal and pulled it up the side, then over it. The bag opened up and he looked inside. After rummaging around, Danny looked at Warriors.”Yeah, no. I don’t have any weapons.” He said, closing his bag back up and standing up with one of his hand lifting it up by one of the straps.

Wild reached into his own bag and walked over to Danny as he searched the seemingly infinite space. He soon pulled out some chainmail and a piece of armor. He wordlessly placed it of top of the tunic and undershirt given to Danny by Legend.“Oh, thank you. Are you really sure this is necessary, though? Is it that bad that I shouldn’t walk around in my normal clothes?” Danny asked. Wild nodded and pulled out a sword from his bag. It was probably one of the swords he’s taken from dead monsters and gave to Four to fix up.

Danny was careful when he took the sword from his hand.“Okay. Again, thanks.” He said. He turned his head towards Time when he noticed him coming towards him.

“We’ll teach you how to use a sword. Here, these will give you better protection against rough terrain than those.” He said, handing him a pair of boots and pants he forgot to drop off at the ranch.

“Uh- Thanks. I appreciate it.“ Danny said.

If his world was really as harmless as it sounds, then he had done a fairly good job staying calm, but he was starting to freak out. Wolfie nudged his hand seeing his uneasiness starting to creep onto his face and Time backed away.

“Teaching you should be easy! There’s nine of us.” Wind said, hoping it would help. Danny opened his mouth, probably to thank them again, but then he paused with an odd look on his face.

“Wait...” Danny looked from one member to the other. Time realized Wind’s mistake as the human’s eyes finally fell on Wolfie. There were currently eight hylians, not nine. He was worried about Twilight’s secret being blown for a second.”A wolf using sword? I shouldn’t find that funny, but it kind of is.” Danny said. Some of the other members looked at Wolfie.

Sky was the one to change the subject again.”You can go into the ruins to change, but the rest of us should probably introduce ourselves first.” He said.

“Oh, right. I guess I’ll go first.” Legend said.

~~~~~(Small Time Skip + POV Switch)~~~~~

After everyone introduced themselves, Danny was brought into the ruins and left in a small room with no windows. After he had gotten changed, he folded his clothes and put them into his bag, then took a moment to just sit down and think for a moment. One minute, he’s walking through a forest hanging out with some Shades that approached him, the next, a dark portal with purple rims opened from underneath him and he fell through without enough time to react.

Then, he lands next to a weird red monster, gets cut by it, saved by a husky who’s apparently a wolf named Wolfie — and Danny himself isn’t good at naming, but seriously? Wolfie?? —, and now he’s apparently going with a group of people who have the same name so they use nicknames like Legend and Four because they’ve gone through a dark and purple portal before and they think they can get him home?

And they’re giving him armor and sword lessons?! It’s amazing how much can happen in just a few hours.

‘This is bad.’

Danny dug into his backpack for his phone. He had to contact someone back home quickly if he couldn’t get there himself. Who’s going to protect the town? What if his parents called the cops? What will he say when he returns? He went to his contact list and immediately tried calling both Tucker and Sam without thinking. It didn’t even ring. The young halfa noticed the service bars. They were gone. He internally scolded himself for not coming to that conclusion sooner. If he was in another world, he should’ve guessed that he wouldn’t be able to call anyone.

Danny took a deep breath and checked his text notifications. He hadn’t received any. Again, it was probably the clear lack of cellphone reception. He put it back into his backpack, but quickly pulled his hand out when he felt something cool and squishy brush up against his fingers. He grabbed onto both sides of his backpack and held them open so he could see inside.

Two black eyes blinked at him from their spot nestled between his notebooks and clothes. Danny’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something, probably shout, but he was luckily cut off by a knock.

”Hey, are you okay in there? You’ve worn armor before, right?” Wind called out.

“Yeah, just a second!” Danny shouted back. He glanced between the door and the little shade in his backpack, then the door again.”No, I haven’t worn armor before!” He corrected himself. He looked down at the shade, who tilted half of its body in a way akin to a confused head tilt. Its core vibrated and sent a message to his own.

Confusion. Fear. “What’s happening?”

Danny wasn’t in ghost form, but he could still understand them. He lowered his voice to a whisper.“I’m still figuring it out. Look, you have to stay in here, okay? We don’t know if they like ghosts or not.” He said. The shade tilted back to its normal position and sent him another message.

Understanding. Worry. Patience. “Okay. I will wait.”

Danny smiled a little and zipped his backpack up with the shade inside. He went to put it on his back, but it felt a little funny with the armor on. The armor was a little snug and didn’t screw up with his binder, nor was it exactly itchy. It was breathable and surprisingly okay to move around in. It was new, but not bad. He picked up the sword Wild lent to him on his way out of the room and back to the main room of the ruins. Why they thought ruins were a good place to change, Danny will never really know. Sure, they provided walls, but still.

He immediately took notice of someone standing next to Time and Sky. Danny was pretty sure he wasn’t there before. He was probably the second or third tallest out of them and looked like he was wearing a dark pelt or something. Wind was right next to the door and raised a hand, which got the guy’s attention.”Twilight, come meet Danny.” He called. The one Danny hadn’t properly met glanced between Time and Sky before walking over to them. He seemed friendly, but appearances can be deceiving. That was a card Danny also had to play until he had a full grasp of the situation.

As he came closer, Danny took notice of something. Two somethings, actually. One of them was that the guy had the same marking on his forehead as the wolf, except in black instead of white. The second thing was that the pendant in his necklace looked almost the same as the rock Danny had noticed when he was petting the wolf’s head.

Was he... No, he was probably just looking too deep in a shallow lake. He just got here, he shouldn’t jump to those kinds of conclusions. Where was the wolf, anyways?

“Oh, hey, you and the wolf have the same markings. Are you two friends or something?” Danny asked. He wasn’t sure why he went with that instead of introducing himself, but that’s what happened. Twilight, the name Wind had called him, nodded and kept his smile.

What was that brief look for, though?

“Yeah, he helped me out on my adventure. Saved me from a fate worse than death. The mark just appeared after a while. Speaking of the wolf, I heard about how you were calm when he approached you and was a little surprised. Most people would attack a wolf approaching.” Twilight said. Danny felt the need to explain himself and shrugged.

“I don’t know if this part was mentioned to you yet, but I thought he was a dog. Besides, he was nice and helped me find my bag after taking down a red, ugly thing that was going to kill me, so I figured it was safe to trust him after I was told he was actually a wolf.” He said. Wind moved next to both of them and caught both of their attention.

“Twilight’s probably the nicest in the group, but he’s a great fighter, so he’s going to be sparring you.” Wind said. Danny’s eyes widened and he almost took a step back. He glanced back at Twilight, who was obviously a bit bigger than him.

He must’ve looked as anxious as he suddenly felt because Twilight spoke up.”Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine. We’re going to switch between defense, offense, and then we do both at the same time. It’ll just be to see how strong and fast you already are, and we’re going to wait until your injury’s much better.” He explained. Danny nodded. He noticed Wild practically appear next to him and offer him a wooden shield. As much as he didn’t want to, Danny accepted the shield with a “thank you”.

(I worry that it might be rushed or not very good, so if you have anything you think needs pointing out or constructive criticism, or any kind of feedback really, that would be really, really appreciated!)

#danny phantom #danny fenton #linked universe #linked universe x Danny phantom #Danny phantom x linked universe #linked universe time #linked universe wolf #linked universe warriors #linked universe wolfie #linked universe wild #linked universe wind #linked universe legend #linked universe hyrule #linked universe four #linked universe twilight #lu x dp #dp x lu

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