(content warning, unnamed character death, war)
A gentle breeze swooshed through the area, carrying a song of peace, a jarring juxtaposition against the backdrop of the world it caressed. The earth was torn and soaked, soil absorbing blood like dew, poisoning a nearby stream. Malice clung to the air a moment before being swept away in the wind, like water flowing over an open wound. Bodies lay on the scuffed-up ground, looking almost like they were resting were it not for the open eyes, the disfigured contortion of their positions, the chunks of armor and weapons, the stench of death permeating the air before the zephyr carried it away.
Link sat overlooking it all. He felt strangely disengaged from it all, mind not really coming up with words, chest tight, body stiff, exhausted and filled with energy, adrenaline making his eyes stay open until they burned while every fiber of his being screamed for rest. Hemisi sat beside him, still holding a scroll she’d picked off the Gerudo general they’d killed in the battle.
Eventually, his friend broke the silence first. She always did. “How many do you think died?”
Did it even matter? He shrugged, too tired to speak.
“I used to think being a warrior was an honor,” Hemisi muttered, fingers tracing over dried blood on the parchment. “That it was my duty to lead the Gerudo and defend my people should we ever need to fight.”
The wind blew again, rustling leaves in the trees as they fell, blood red and golden yellow, like fire raining from the sky.
“There’s nothing honorable in this,” Hemisi finally said quietly.
A sound caught both teenagers’ attention, carried by the breeze, a groan, a whimper. Link rose, pulling out a dagger while Hemisi drew one of her scimitars. The pair moved slowly in unison, watching each other’s back and scanning the deserted battlefield.
It didn’t take long to trace the noise to its source, leading them to a Hylian soldier who was laying on the ground. Blood had soaked through his armor, looking like he’d been swimming in it, face pale as snow, eyes terrified, body twitching in agony.
Link rummaged through his pouch for a potion, but found that he had none. Hemisi came up short as well.
“We have to get him back to camp,” Hemisi said, eyes worried as she looked around to ensure there weren’t other threats or survivors.
Link just stared at the soldier. He’d lost so much blood. He’d lost too much blood. He heard Hemisi curse softly under her breath, kneeling down, and he saw the other wound she’d picked up on. The soldier’s leg was missing, the majority of bone and muscle hidden in tattered clothes, but he could still see the grotesque display well enough, could feel the way his mind numbed further, the way he physically recoiled.
Hemisi shifted a little to kneel beside the man. The camp was too far away. This soldier was too far gone.
It felt… wrong. Giving up like this. But by this point in the war, Link knew when it was time to stop fighting.
“Should… should we finish it?” Hemisi asked quietly as the soldier moaned, barely noticing they were there.
Link moved slowly, kneeling at the man’s other side. Hemisi glanced up at him, grip tight on her blade, ready to end the soldier’s suffering. She’d spilled enough blood as it was – what was one more, if it was to help?
The Hero of Hyrule shook his head. “No. Let Farore take him when she thinks he is ready. But we should stay with him.”
Hemisi bit her lip, looking away from the soldier a moment as he moaned again. Link slowly reached down to hold the man’s hand, and Hemisi sighed, putting her hand on the man’s shoulder.
“We’re here,” she whispered softly, trying to keep her voice steady. “You’re not alone.”
The teenagers stayed, offering what little support they could as the man passed on, waiting until he stopped twitching and gasping, until the tears stopped falling, the blood stopped oozing. The soldier glanced at Link one last time. “H-Hero…”
Link squeezed his hand. Whatever the soldier tried to say couldn’t get out of his throat before he breathed his last, eyes fixed on the young warrior.
The pair sat there a moment, honoring the fallen in their own ways, before they rose together. It was over.
When they made it back to camp, they sat once more, staring out at the field, letting the breeze play with their hair.
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CW talking about anti blackness/ racism in fandom under the cut and also just isat spoilers)
You know sometimes I feel so much rage in my fucking heart actually.
You know you have to be extremely tone deaf and ignorant to outright make fun of and ignore the multiple people telling you to not whitewash the canonical non white characters in the game. You have to be so incredibly entitled to think that you deserve a fucking gold star for less than the bare minimum. Black people/ other racial minorities should not have to repeatedly beg you to not be racist and complaining in the main tags about how it’s not worth the effort to learn how to draw other people other than skinny white anime characters. That kind of sucks actually. It sucks a lot and I’m really disappointed in how so many people are seemingly just chill with that kind of behavior.
Just I don’t know there’s something so deeply ironic in the act of whitewashing mirabelle chevalier, a girl whose whole arc was learning and accepting that it’s okay not to change and that she likes being herself and changing her design to be unrecognizable from canon by making her hair straight (on purpose) because you didn’t want to look at a tutorial (that the dev of the game straight up made for free and easy access to everyone on the internet) and think she looks better with straight / wavy or spiky hair instead. Very fun and epic and cool (not).
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(warning: makes no sense, you’re kinda mean, gn)
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Bakugo is a little bit in love with you.
Well, he likes to think it’s not love so much as it is just a ginormous, fantastic, debilitating crush. But it could be love, eventually. If, one day, you let it be.
Right now, you’re just friends. Good friends, ones who study together. Ones who do more than that, sit in the cafeteria and eat together, maybe even walk home together after, too. And it’s slow going, but it’s going. A little mundane, but far more than he’s ever before hoped for, which he knows because there’s a part of him that has already decided that he’d do anything for you and let you do anything to him.
So Bakugo knows how he feels (he knows a lot about things when it comes to you)... and that, in itself, is enough.
Especially, when you get questioned:
“Isn’t he a little…” a person asks one day, hesitates, almost as if they’re scared for you when they say it, their eyes flitting between you both, “mean?”
“Mean?“ you ask, eyes wide.
They nod, “he gets mad all the time.”
Bakugo feels his blood start to simmer, his heart begin to race, and he has to clench both his fists and his jaw to stop himself from committing an act just short of violence. Or even worse, one that scares you off.
But on the other side of the table, you just stare at his assailant; blinking like they’re dumb, like the whole thing doesn’t matter, and like they didn’t just insult him in a way that he wants to forget but he’s sure he’ll dwell on for a long time to come. Because truth is, he’s mean and he knows it, but not how to spare the people around him from facing the brunt of it.
And that… is what feels bad.
You, on the other hand, don’t seem to mind, replying to the question like it’s easy, like the words aren’t true when it’s very apparent they are. In any other case, to any other person, would be. He can feel his chest prickle.
“Not at all,” the words are confident, comforting, surprising, and you turn to face him with a pretty smile. “Watch this:
“Hey, Bakugo,” you get real close to his face, close enough that he can almost count your eyelashes, see the trust in your irises, the humor, and it’s another thing he finds that he loves. “Fuck you.”
The words don’t really sting, the blood in cheeks cools… and he can’t help but admit that he’s just a little bit proud of himself when he smiles easy, too. The curl in his lip humorous, your very own inside joke.
“Fuck you right back.”
You grin, and for some reason, Bakugo feels safe.
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