#hi yes i write warriors/thom content and even if thom isn't in this first chapter he still exists thanks

[nerdiests]

would that be enough? (i don’t know if it would)

sup lads, i haven’t... put stuff i’ve written on here in a while, but i thought there’s no time like the present! so here’s what i wrote for the @linkeduniverse weekly prompt over on the discord - warriors week (again). i love my lad, that’s all. 

check it out on ao3 under the same name! 

(chapter 1: ready set... not yet)

Anyways, as I write this last paragraph, we’ve been in our Hyrule for two days. Right now, Wild’s making some sort of dish with salmon, though I’m not sure what it is. In all honesty, I’m upset we ended up on the exact opposite side of the country. We’re in the Faron Woods, when I wish we were just right outside the village. It feels like it’s been too long since I’ve seen you, and I hope that I’ll be able to see you soon. I miss you. 

Love, Link.

With a flourish, Warriors signed his name on the letter for Thom, drawing a small heart next to both his and Thom’s names. Goddesses, he was being sappy. But he missed his boyfriend. 

“Finished writing another love letter, Warriors?” Legend snarked. Warriors brushed off Legend’s usual snark in favor of grabbing his pack, putting it on his lap, and rummaging through it to find his envelopes. 

“Why do you call them love letters? I doubt Warriors is spending the entire letter waxing poetic about Thom anyways,” Twilight said, attempting and failing to give Warriors a subtle thumbs up. Considering everyone else could see Twilight’s thumbs up, it wasn’t all that subtle. Twilight wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit him in the face. Several times. 

“I think it’s sweet!” Sky said, a sappy smile on his face. 

“It’s practical too, especially if he’s not getting to see Thom all that often,” Four added, a grin on his own face. Goddesses, they all knew he was a sap, didn’t they? Ignoring that thought, Warriors carefully folded the letter to fit into the envelope he had grabbed and put the folded letter inside. 

“Why not just tell Thom about everything when you see him again, though?” Wind asked, his voice a lot closer than Warriors was expecting. Turning towards the youngest hero of the bunch that had apparently taken the space on the log next to him, Warriors pulled out his bundle of letters from his pack sitting on his lap. The letters had amassed over the last month and a half, and after a quick movement of Warriors’ pencil, he slid the envelope with Thom’s name on it into the stack. 

“There might be something that I really think is important in the moment when I’m writing that I’ll forget about when I see him again,” Warriors said, slipping the bundle back into his pack and placing it on the ground. 

“True…” Wind replied, putting his chin on one of his hands. Warriors chuckled at the sight - he looked like a little philosopher. 

“It’s also a tradition back from when we first got together. I was off at war and I couldn’t see him as often as I would’ve liked when the war got in full swing, so I started writing letters that I’d deliver whenever I saw him. Typically it was every month, sometimes less, so he’d usually get five letters every time I visited,” Warriors explained. Legend laughed from across the campfire.

“I knew you were a sap!” Legend said triumphantly. Warriors only rolled his eyes. He knew that Legend was just trying to get a rise out of him. 

“Leave Warriors alone, Legend. We’ve all got people back home we care about,” Time said, with both Sky and Wind nodding. 

“Coming from the married man,” Legend shot back, although it was fairly obvious that he wasn’t being serious. Warriors laughed, right as Wild turned around with a flourish. 

“Dinner’s ready!” Wild said, lifting up his spoon and accidentally flinging a bit of whatever he made onto Hyrule’s tunic. For a moment, they all went quiet, until Hyrule reached down and swept up the bit of food with a finger and ate it. 

“Wh-” Four started to speak, but Hyrule quickly cut him off. 

“Delicious!” 

“I… Guess you like the risotto then?” Wild asked, getting a series of nods from Hyrule. Time raised an eyebrow from across the camp and cleared his throat.

“So… Are we all going to be served like that or was it just a Hyrule thing?” Time asked teasingly. Wild’s face went red, before reaching for the bowls he’d set down near the campfire. 

Dinner was quickly passed around, compliments were given to their wild chef, and everyone started wrapping everything up for the evening. As they did so, there was a rustling sound in the forest around them. Warriors straightened up from where he sat, scarf wrapped partially around Wind as he read an interesting novel about a Hyrule that had harnessed electricity without magic and created a functioning society around it. It was intriguing, which was why Warriors was loath to put it down in favor of reaching for his sword. 

Warriors and Twilight shared a glance across camp as the rustling grew louder and everyone grew quieter. Right as Twilight lifted up his sword and took a step forward, a figure stepped out from the bushes. The postman, his hat and banner slightly askew, walked out with a small bundle of letters in hand. 

“I have some letters for a Link Ellanher? They’re from one Thom-” Before the postman could finish speaking, Warriors cut him off. 

“That would be me. And I’ve got a few letters to deliver back, if you wouldn’t mind,” Warriors said, stepping forward to trade bundles of letters. The postman looked a bit affronted at Warriors cutting him off, but he couldn’t care much at the moment. He wanted his letters from his boyfriend! 

After the postman made his hasty departure, Warriors sat back down and ignored the curious looks from the rest of the group. 

“Why’d you cut the postman off like that?” Wind asked curiously. Warriors shrugged, not actively saying anything in favor of opening up the letter at the bottom of the stack of three - Thom wrote twice a month, unlike his own weekly letters. No matter what, though, they both put the oldest letters on the bottom. And as everyone started to wind down from their surprise visitor, Warriors started to read. 

As Warriors scanned over the first two letters, he smiled softly. Thom’s alright. He’s safe, no one’s coming after him, he’s safe. All Thom’s been up to is experimenting with some new combinations of fruit for fruit tarts and taking Zelda on her biannual veterinary visit. Everything was calm. He had nothing to worry about. And with that, he moved onto the third and final letter, which appeared to have been written rather recently. The ink looked the freshest. 

Warriors’ soft smile persisted as he started to read this newest letter in more detail. 

Dearest Link,

This is the third letter I’ve penned for you, and I find myself growing more and more anxious for your return. I know that you must miss me as much as I miss you, but still. Some days, the longing feels like too much. I want to hold you, I want to see you, and I long for some quality time once you do arrive again. I miss you so much, pumpkin. The day where you walk through the front door of the bakery can’t come fast enough. 

But I do have news! Something important happened a few days past, something that I can’t necessarily talk about in detail. All you need to know is that once you get home again, we’ll be going out to dinner at the nicest place in town and then you’ll know. I can’t wait!

There was more to the letter, but Warriors’ eyes glazed over near the end of the second paragraph. Dinner at the nicest place in town, and he’ll know then… That. That sounded. Wait. 

Is Thom going to propose?

Oh goddesses, Warriors can’t have that. He really can’t. He didn’t know how it got into Thom’s head that a proposal was a good idea. Sure, the two of them had been together for almost three years at this rate, but that wasn’t a long enough time to date to know that they would want to spend the rest of their lives together! They should date for at least another three years, if not another five! If Thom was really dedicated to their relationship then he could wait that long, couldn’t he? 

“Warriors? Are you alright?” Warriors heard a familiar voice somewhere nearby. But he didn’t focus on it. Thom was going to propose. Golden Goddesses above, he was not ready for this! He wouldn’t be able to treat Thom the way he should, especially if he was away all the time like this! A husband shouldn’t be away from his husband all the time! And a boyfriend shouldn’t be away from his boyfriend all the time like he was now! He was being a bad boyfriend, and he’d be a bad husband too!

“Warriors!” A different voice yelled. He still continued to catastrophize. About all the things that would go wrong when Thom proposed. Because that’s what Warriors knew he was going to do. His vision was a blur, his ears were ringing, and-! Someone was touching him.

Without thinking, Warriors swung out a fist wildly, hearing a satisfying smack not even seconds after. His vision cleared, and Twilight was hunched over, one hand over his middle as he tried to breathe in. Everyone else was either looking at him with concern or anger or a mixture of the two. 

“What the fuck Warriors?” Wild said, tone accusatory as he started to walk forward, a knife in hand. Time tried to grab Wild, because it would not be good if Warriors got stabbed. Time didn’t need to do that, though, as Warriors yanked his scarf and unravelled it from around Wind, before running into the woods. 

-

Warriors didn’t know what he’d been thinking. He didn’t know what he was thinking now, even. All he knew is that he had to get away. Away from the campfire and the accusing looks. Away from the letter Thom had written. Away from… Everything. Why had he punched Twilight? Why had he panicked like that? Warriors was fine! Thom proposing would be fine! It would be! He would make it fine! It didn’t matter if the idea made him quake in his boots like nothing ever had before, or if it made him feel a bit queasy, but Warriors would manage it. He had to! For Thom!

“Who am I kidding,” Warriors muttered to himself, bringing himself to a stop. His panicked sprinting had gradually slowed to a jog, and as he stopped, he glanced around. There wasn’t a path to be found, and he knew he was nowhere near anywhere he’d been in the past. Despite spending excessive time in Faron Woods during the war, Warriors hadn’t seen every nook and cranny of the woods. And this spot was an unfamiliar one to him. At least there was a tree nearby. 

Sighing quietly to himself, Warriors plopped himself down with his back against the tree, immediately reaching to fiddle with his scarf. His scarf that he’d had ever since that first battle back at the beginning of all things. Before he even knew Thom. Goddesses, he. Really needed to stop bringing everything back to Thom, because that would only get his mind racing again. He’d run from everyone else to get away from that line of thinking, not immediately bring himself back to it! Warriors tightened his grip on the scarf, trying to ground himself. He was sitting in a forest, leaning against a tree, and he was fine. 

Except he knew he wasn’t. 

Warriors sighed to himself, hunching over as he started to fiddle with the embroidered end of his scarf. He’d have to go back eventually, considering he left everything there. Though Warriors didn’t fancy having to explain what happened to everyone else. He wasn’t even sure he could really explain what happened. 

The bushes around him rustled. Sitting up straight, Warriors looked around. He didn’t have any of his items with him - all he had was the dagger that he kept on his person at all times. If it was a monster or any other sort of enemy, Warriors would be screwed. Right as Warriors reached to grab the dagger, the rustling grew louder and Twilight walked out of the bushes. Huh?

“Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you,” Twilight said, sounding a lot calmer than someone who had recently been sucker punched in the stomach had any right to be. 

“What are you doing here?” Warriors asked. Why would Twilight follow him? If he had any sense at all, Twilight would’ve stayed back at the camp and left Warriors to panic by himself! Wait. Warriors wasn’t panicking. He wasn’t. 

“When you started reading that last letter, you looked… Really out of it. Everyone got concerned, and I was the unlucky one that decided to try and shake you out of it. Bad idea, in hindsight, heh,” Twilight replied, before moving over and sitting down next to Warriors. Warriors tensed up, prepared for Twilight to do something. What it’d be, he wasn’t sure of. But Warriors fully expected for Twilight to do something.

“...And now you’re tenser than one of the strings on Wild’s bows. What’re you afraid of, Warriors?” Twilight asked. Warriors, to his credit, tried to not be as tense. It didn’t work as well as he hoped, but he tried. But Twilight was still there, in the corner of his eye. Probably raising a brow and expecting an answer. 

“I’m not afraid!” Warriors replied, unable to stop the slight crack in his voice. That hadn’t happened since he was fourteen. A slight pink coloring his cheeks, Warriors turned away from Twilight, keeping his eyes locked on the ground. 

“Alright. If you say so,” Twilight said. 

Their shared space was quiet, for a while. Neither of them said a word, whether it was from sheer stubbornness or patience. All that could be heard were birds chirping and the occasional sound of a branch moving in the trees above them. 

“I’m sorry for punching you, Twilight,” Warriors muttered, breaking the silence. Twilight reached out for a moment, hesitating. Eventually, he decided against what he was going to do, and put his hand back where it was. 

“It’s fine, Warriors. I get it,” Twilight said, catching Warriors off-guard. His head jerked up and he whirled around to look at Twilight.

“How can you get it? You haven’t felt anxious at the idea of marrying someone because you’re afraid of losing them! I-!” Warriors cut himself off. That is not what he wanted to say. Oh beans. 

“Is… Is that what happened earlier? You normally look so happy when you read over Thom’s letters to you,” Twilight said. Warriors looked away, his eyes locked onto his boots. He didn’t want to… To talk about it.

“Heroes are… Are supposed to be strong, not… Not be a farce! I can’t even think about Thom proposing without panicking!” Warriors’ voice rose as he spoke, throwing his arms up in frustration. 

“Warriors.”

“I want to marry Thom one day, but! I just can’t think about the idea without feeling some level of nausea!”

“Warriors.”

“It’s not like I don’t love my boyfriend, because I do-!”

“Warriors!” 

Warriors blinked. Huh.

“I understand what you’re going through, Warriors,” Twilight continued. Now that Warriors was skeptical of.

“You remember that we talked of our journeys in some detail when we first met one another, yeah?” Twilight paused for a moment, allowing Warriors to nod. “And you remember that I went on my adventure because some of the children in my village went missing, right?” 

Oh. Right. 

“I’m guessing you forgot that, then?” Twilight asked. Sheepishly, Warriors nodded. Twilight put a hand on his shoulder and grinned. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not like everyone would remember that detail. I can guarantee that most of the group’s forgotten about that at this rate.” Now that comment got Warriors to laugh, if only a little bit. 

“And besides, you know Midna. You know she was with me on my adventure,” Twilight said as he took his hand off Warriors’ shoulder. 

“Yeah. What about it?” Warriors said, finally voicing a reply. Twilight was quiet for a moment.

“After my adventure, she left,” Twilight said, and goddesses his voice sounded so raw. Tentatively, Warriors put one of his hands on Twilight’s shoulder, which got a slightly shaky grin from him. Taking a deep breath, Twilight continued talking. 

“She was there for my entire adventure, and I know she had a kingdom to rule, but! We didn’t really get a proper goodbye!” Twilight’s head fell into his hands, while Warriors awkwardly patted his shoulder. Warriors was… Not as good as he should be at comforting people, so the only thing Warriors could do was let Twilight talk it out. 

“She closed the only way for her to come back, and goddesses I miss her,” Twilight said, lifting his head up slightly. 

“Is it bad? That I wish she hadn’t done that? That she could’ve stayed, that I could’ve told her the one thing I regret leaving unsaid?” Twilight said, turning towards Warriors, who let his hand slide back into his lap. Before Warriors could reply to Twilight’s question, he continued to speak. 

“And that’s not to mention that I’m so afraid that anyone that I grow close to is going to disappear! I already lost the children back in Ordon, who’s to say that it won’t happen again?” Warriors ducked as Twilight threw his arms up again, turning away from Warriors as he spoke. 

“I… I get that,” Warriors said quietly, catching Twilight’s attention. 

“When I was fifteen, my mom got really sick, and she passed away. She was the only person I was really close to for most of my life, and it took another two years for me to get close to anyone else. I thought they’d leave like my mom, even if she didn’t choose to leave,” Warriors explained, his voice not raising above a murmur the entire time he spoke. The duo was quiet for a moment, the birds filling the silence between the two. 

“That… Must’ve been hard,” Twilight broke the silence between the two. Warriors nodded slightly, not wanting to continue his train of thought. There was only one way it was going, and he didn’t like the conclusion it would bring. 

Unluckily for him, Twilight knew where that was headed, and knew Warriors needed to talk about it. 

“Is that why you’re afraid to get married to Thom?” Warriors flinched as Twilight spoke. Twilight blanched himself, shaking his head slightly. 

“That is… Not how I wanted to say that.”

“Oh I can tell,” Warriors replied, chuckling. Twilight rolled his eyes.

“I meant… Your mom’s death had a very large effect on you. You’re afraid of people leaving because the most important person in your life at that time left. But do you really think Thom will leave you? How long have you two been dating?” Twilight asked, quirking an eyebrow as Warriors averted his eyes. 

“Over two years, almost three,” he replied quietly, eyes focused on a bird in the trees. 

“If Thom was going to end a relationship that’s lasted this long, wouldn’t he have to have a valid reason for it?” Twilight said. 

“I mean, yes, but I’ve spent more of our relationship away from him than with him, and isn’t that a shitty thing to do?” Warriors said, turning back towards Twilight. As interesting as that bird was, it was better to at least have eye contact during a discussion. 

“Warriors, I doubt you’ve spent that much time away from him. You said that the two of you met about a quarter of the way through the war, and got together officially about halfway through, right?” Twilight asked. Warriors nodded, glancing down at his lap. 

“And you visited as much as you could during the times when you couldn’t stay?” Twilight continued. Warriors nodded again. 

“We moved in together after the war ended, and I spent as much time with him as I could, but! What if it’s not enough?” Warriors said, worry creeping into his words. Twilight paused for just a moment, before putting a hand on Warriors’ shoulder. 

“Warriors. Thom loves you, and if he had any problems with you being gone, he would say so, wouldn’t he?” Hesitantly, Warriors nodded at Twilight’s words. It… It made sense, but. 

“I…”

“Warriors. If Thom has problems, he will tell you. And you can always ask the next time he sees you,” Twilight said. Oh. Right. He could do that. 

“It’s just… In the most recent letter, he said we’d be going to the nicest place in town and he’d have news for me, and I can’t imagine that as anything but a proposal!” Warriors exclaimed, smacking one of his hands on the tree trunk. Oops. 

“Would you be okay with a proposal?” Twilight asked in reply. Warriors blinked. He hadn’t thought about if he would be okay. He’d thought about what would happen when he inevitably freaked out at the words “will you marry me?” Thinking about a proposal in a purely objective view made it seem like a good idea, yes, but the idea of something more permanent… Scared him. The perks of calling Thom his husband were high (mainly just being able to say he had a husband), but Warriors wasn’t sure if he could deal with that level of commitment just yet. One day, absolutely, but… 

“Not yet,” Warriors said, voice soft. 

“Then that’s the answer you’ll give,” Twilight said. Warriors nodded.

“Yeah. I suppose it is.” 

-

When Warriors and Twilight walked back into the campsite after a bit of finagling to find the path again, Warriors nearly got tackled to the ground by a very angry Wild. 

“What the fuck Warriors?” Wild asked, grabbing Warriors’ tunic collar. Which was a bit amusing, but also? Warriors did Not like that. 

“Wild!” Twilight snapped, and almost immediately Wild turned to look at Twilight. He didn’t let go of Warriors’ collar, though, which. 

“Do you mind?” Warriors asked. Wild ignored him. 

“Let go of Warriors, Wild. It’s fine,” Twilight said, locking eyes with Warriors for a moment. Warriors was going to be a bit agitated if… Wild let go of the collar of his shirt. Warriors sighed as he walked over to the log he had been sitting at. The last letter from Thom sat on top of his pack, and as he picked it back up, Warriors looked around camp.

“I put the letter on your pack,” Hyrule said, answering the question that Warriors hadn’t even asked. 

“And before you ask, I didn’t read it. I know you really cherish those letters, and reading them would be rude,” Hyrule continued. Warriors nodded.

“Thanks,” he replied, getting a smile from Hyrule in reply. 

“What was that even about, Warriors? Wouldn’t expect you to punch someone in the stomach,” Legend said as Warriors tucked the letter away. He could read over the rest of it later. 

“Hm…” As Warriors thought to himself, Twilight cut in.

“He was having a gay panic.” For a few seconds after Twilight spoke, the group was silent. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Legend asked as he started wheezing. Warriors blinked a few times as the group devolved into laughter. From across the campfire, Twilight locked eyes with him and winked. 

“Thanks,” Warriors whispered, his voice unheard among the raucous laughter of the rest of the group. Twilight only shrugged, and Warriors had to smile at that. Leave it to Twilight to use what technically counted as the truth to mask what actually happened.