#hope you don't mind all the ocs as my brain is currently infested by them LOL

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Fluff and comfort coming up in multiple flavors since I don't know if you have a preference for characters/my stories and stuff.

Imprisoning War

Hemisi peeked in hesitantly, moving as silently as possible. The Festival of Colors had been a wonderful time, but Link had gotten ill shortly after, scaring her and her brother to death when he hadn't been able to breathe. Her father had quickly taken charge of the situation, but he hadn't let her anywhere near her boyfriend since then.

Well, she had to check on him. She hadn't seen neither Link nor her father since last night, and that was a whole day ago. It was evening now, the orange sunset reflecting on the colored powder that still stained the pathways and walls, reminding her of the festivities they'd had yesterday.

Her parents' room was at the center of the top floor of the palace, making it accessible but also very hard to be not noticed. Hemisi did her best, though, having memorized different routes of escape over the years.

Careful not to cast an obvious shadow, Hemisi slowly surveyed the room, noticing immediately that Link was in bed and her father was nowhere to be seen. Relieved, she entered hastily, poking her boyfriend carefully. He at least looked like he was breathing well.

Link turned his head a little, brow furrowing as he took a sleepy inhale with the jostling. Then he took notice of her, sitting up, eyes lighting up like the sun as he smiled. "Misi!"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Hemisi whispered reassuringly, before asking, "You... are okay, right?"

"I'm fine," he hastily answered, waving a dismissive hand and trying to reassure her.

"Link. You'd say you're fine while you're bleeding to death," Hemisi noted dully. "Be straight with me."

The warrior sighed, leaning back into the pillows behind him. "I'm just a little tired now. But I promise I'm pretty much okay. I can breathe fine, my chest just hurts."

"Perfect," Hemisi beamed, filled with excited energy. "I wanted to show you something before you got, well, really sick, but you can't come if you're still too ill to move."

"Getting out of here? We're getting out of here?" Link whispered, sitting up again, eyebrows rising with eagerness. "Gosh, please. Please, let's go somewhere, Lord Ganondorf won't let me get out of bed."

Then he caught himself, biting his lips uncertainly as his duty-bound nature conflicted with his restlessness.

Hemisi had no such qualms, and she knew she could coax the mischievous side out of him. "Don't worry about him. This is way more important."

Link frowned, nose scrunching the way it did when he was skeptical. "What are we doing?"

"Exploring the old sanctuary," Hemisi immediately answered, lowering her voice. "It's been abandoned for hundreds of years. Imagine the things we'd find down there!"

"Haven't you already explored it?"

"Heck no, it requires two people for some of the climbing and stuff."

"But Merovar...?"

Hemisi huffed. "Haven't you figured out yet that Merovar prefers quaffing his stupid self and pretending he's already king? He hates getting dirty."

"He literally tackled you into the muddy water yesterday."

"Okay, let me rephrase. He hates getting dirty and attacked."

Link crossed his arms, smirking. "Uh huh. So there are monsters in this sanctuary."

"Maybe," Hemisi shrugged, smiling slyly. "But that's never been a problem for you."

Link's expression mirrored her own, and she knew she had him. "No. It hasn't."

"You two are going to get in so much trouble."

Link and Hemisi nearly jumped out of their skin at the voice, looking to see her brother, Merovar, standing in the doorway.

"Mer, what the hell," Hemisi hissed. "Don't give us heart attacks!"

"Father's going to kill you anyway, so might as well start early," Merovar replied dully. "You're crazy, by the way. Nobody goes to the sanctuary for a reason."

"And you're a coward," Hemisi fired back. "You can fight well enough, you just don't want to."

Merovar rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Father's heading back upstairs, so if you're going to go, better do it now."

Adrenaline shot through her body, and Hemisi hastily grabbed Link by the wrist, dragging him out of the bed. Her boyfriend didn't argue, breathily giggling as he followed her, and the two dove off the balcony without hesitation.

It was time to have an adventure.

Hero of Shadow

The Depths were suffocating him. He felt his skin crawl, his heart racing, he felt like he was about to burst out of his chest.

“I want to go outside again,” he said softly, frankly pathetically, but he didn’t care how weak he sounded. He was done. He was so done.

Ganondorf’s expression, initially fairly neutral, grew somewhat exasperated. “We just got back. You said you were tired.”

I only did that because there was a traveler. I didn’t want you to hurt him. “But talking to you woke me up. I want… I just want some fresh air. Please.”

It was foolish to argue with the man. Link had learned early on that fighting Ganondorf like this wouldn’t get him anywhere. But, for whatever reason, the man didn’t immediately snap or take control of him. Instead, Ganondorf watched him a moment, cheeks flushing a little in frustration, before he took a calming breath and rose, holding out a hand. “All right. But we only have a few hours left of the blood moon, understood? We cannot stay beyond that. Come on.”

Link stared, surprised and dumbfounded, head too foggy to really comprehend that he had actually won an argument. He automatically reached out his hand to take the Gerudo king’s, and he let Ganondorf pull him close as gloom surrounded them and sent them upward.

The first sensation Link felt after being squeezed in cold darkness, was moisture. The air was heavy with it, and his ears were filled with the sound of curtains of rain crashing down from the sky. The cool damp of the Depths was replaced by a warm blanket of humidity slowly being washed away by cool rain. Ganondorf immediately shivered, shaking his head of the water that had already soaked his hair, and dragged Link under a tree. Thunder rumbled in the distance, a lullaby to accompany the nighttime white noise all around them.

Link glanced around, unable to see far due to the walls of white spreading foamy sparkles that hid the world around them. To his best ability, though, he couldn’t detect any people nearby, and he thanked the goddess for that. Then he slowly peeled himself out of Ganondorf’s embrace, stepping out into the open and letting the rain come crashing down on him. The sensation was immediately invigorating and grounding, silencing his mind from the screaming and begging for an end that had been playing nonstop since he’d found Hemisi’s urn. He didn’t think about anything because he couldn’t, his soul filled with the sound of rain, his emotions pouring out as the water carried them away.

“Link, you’ll catch a cold,” Ganondorf called from under the tree, huddled into himself like some feral cat avoiding one of the fountains in the capital.

“I like the rain,” he said quietly, not particularly concerned if he was heard.

Goddess it felt so freeing to be out here, to not be confined by stone and malice, to taste and see and feel and hear the earth around him. He missed this.

The rain brought new life to Hyrule, providing the most precious resource to everything in it. Link licked his lips, tasting the blessed gift, smiling for the first time since he’d been dragged back to mortality. He let it thoroughly soak him to the bone, drenched in the tears of the sky, the magic of the goddesses, the gift of Farore.

Thank you, he prayed. Thank you for giving me this.

It gave him hope. If Ganondorf could let him do this, if he could save that one traveler earlier, if he could actually speak to the man instead of bow down to his every wish…

Link hiccuped, his tears lost in the trails of rainwater cascading down his face. His quiet sobs were lost in the deafening sound of the sky crashing down.

Somehow, Ganondorf heard it. Or sensed it. He wasn’t sure. But the man called to him again, far more gently than before, and he slowly made his way back to him.

“You’re soaking wet,” the Gerudo fussed, pulling off his outer robe and wrapping Link in it. It was warm, so warm, and Link melted, letting Ganondorf settle him on his lap, knowing for a fact that after what he’d done earlier he wasn’t going to be let out of the man’s arm reach let alone out of his sight.

But just in this moment, he didn’t mind. He let himself be held, he let himself relax, he smiled and smiled and giggled and would have outright laughed if he had energy for it.

How had such a horrible day ended with such a note of hope? He didn’t know. But he took it as a sign. Hemisi had always loved the rain too.

Thank you.

“We’ll heal Hyrule, right?” He asked softly, eyes closed, consciousness slowly fading away.

Ganondorf paused from his ministrations, and then chuckled a little, lifting the robe so it was over Link’s head and rubbing his hair dry carefully. “We’ll reshape Hyrule, my boy. And it will be perfect when I am done.”

It wouldn’t be. And he wouldn’t reshape anything. Link would ensure that. He had in the past, and he would now. He’d promised himself that. The rain grew heavier, a breeze blowing a spritz of moisture, a wet kiss from the goddesses themselves as Ganondorf hissed a little and held Link more tightly to shield him from the water.

“Yeah,” Link sighed breathily, finally slipping into sleep with hope glowing in his heart, with resolve returning that rivaled a lonely in strength, with enough trust in the goddesses to be his own secret stone. He was still exhausted, he had no energy left to do anything. But he knew… at some point, it would come back. At some point he would get better. And he had a chance. Hyrule had a chance. He’d saved that stranger, even now, even at his lowest point. He could see the world again, could smell the cherry blossoms from home, could hear the rain and smell the sweet aroma of the world coming alive. “It will be.”

Linked Universe

Wild stared intensely at the cooking pot. "You said a pinch of salt?"

"Yeah, like... I don't know, a little pinch?" Sky offered.

Wild glanced at him exasperatedly. "What's a little pinch?"

Sky hesitantly dipped his hand into a pouch of salt, bringing out a near fistful.

"That's not little!" Wild protested, smacking the Skyloftian's hand away from their dinner. "Honestly, just tell me the basics of the recipe and I'll figure it out, promise."

"What are y'all making?" Twilight asked, peering over them both.

"Pumpkin soup!" Sky said excitedly. "But the Skyloft way."

"Still isn't better than Grandma's soup!" Wind called from the other side of the camp.

"I really wanted to see how it differed, honestly," Wild noted. "There are so many variations on it!"

"I just want to eat," Legend grumbled from where he laid on his sleeping mat, staring at the sky.

"Well, I'm sure it'll turn out great, no matter what," Twilight said with a chuckle.

"For sure!" Sky agreed. "Our cook is the best! I think it's going to be delicious."

"Yeah, but you gotta be more helpful we're going to do it your way," Wild noted. "Tell me the ingredients one more time. And make sure the list actually matches this time, you keep switching ingredients."

Inevitably, Sky added yet another new ingredient to the list, uncertainly claiming that he wasn't sure exactly which spices were in it, but simply emphasizing that it had to be served piping hot for it to be authentic.

When the finished product was ready, everyone eagerly gathered around the cooking pot. Sky dipped a bottle in first, immediately downing the drink, much to Wild's alarm.

"Sky, it's still boiling--"

Sky smiled, eyes alight. "This is delicious!"

Wind watched him warily, slowly dipping his own jar into the food, before he slurped it with his eyes squinted. They blew wide in a heartbeat, though, as he leapt to his feet, bouncing back and forth with his tongue sticking out. "Too hot, too hot!!"

When everyone laughed, he glared defiantly. "I'd like to see you guys try it!"

Of course, it immediately became a competition. The varying expressions the boys and men made to hide their discomfort were enough to draw laughter out of Sky, who somehow was completely unfazed by having boiling hot soup in his mouth.

The winner of the competition, of course, was Time, who managed to maintain a stoic demeanor (Sky was automatically disqualified from the competition). Of course, he wasn't going to tell anyone that he couldn't taste anything for the next two days, or that he downed half the contents of milk he'd packed from Lon Lon Ranch. He did have a reputation to maintain, after all.

And lastly... Recalled!

Malon honestly found it a little difficult to sleep that night. She didn't often wander somewhere so foreign, and she'd never been on one of her husband's adventures. Everyone here was an absolute doll, of course, very friendly and welcoming, but still. It was... different.

Seeking some comfort and familiarity, she slid out of the cot provided to her and climbed the ladder out of the shelter. She just needed some fresh air, and to--

"Malon?"

Gasping a little, she looked down the ladder to see her husband standing at the bottom, looking up at her curiously with half lidded eyes.

"Sorry, love," she whispered. "I just... wanted to go outside."

Link seemed to sense her anxiety, and he gave a small smile of comfort. "Can I come with you?"

Malon huffed out a chuckle, her chest warming with love. "Of course."

The pair made their way into the cool night air, and Malon automatically wandered to the miniature stable at the edge of the compound. Their horses greeted them quietly, ears perked forward as they watched the couple.

"How about a ride?" Link offered.

"You read my mind," Malon smiled back.

The pair rode their steeds into the field. The strange sight of Hyrule castle floating was still unsettling, but with her husband at her side, her horse running freely in the open landscape, and the wind flowing through her hair, Malon knew everything would be all right in the end.

Hey hon!! :D

It seems like you’ve been under a lot of stress lately, so I am here to offer hugs and gifts and distractions ❤️

Hug: Your art style is absolutely adorable and delightful, I love it. Also I am still hugging your art of Shadow to my chest mwuah adore it

Gift: Would you like me to write you anything? :D

Distraction: What’s the latest scoop for the Recalled Heroes? What are Sky and Sun up to?

HDHAJDJFNGN A

Hiiii XD meep I spent like five minutes happy stimming as soon as I saw your ask ndbdhsj

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the hugs and compliments! I have had a bit of a rough week, but I'm finally on the upwards trend, and that's been nice! Mental health is such a fickle thing, but I think I'm getting the hang of it for the moment.

Also hdhajdjfjgbg I'm so glad you love the art! :D I had so much fun drawing him!

As for gift: HSHSHFBFDNSKDKF I'm not used to asking for things fhdjs XD uhm... Maybe just some cute fluff/comfort stuff? I don't really have a preference on characters, but ye. Fluffy cuteness sounds great!

As for Recalled! I'm finally making progress on the next update, which I'm hoping to have done sometime next week, so that'll be fun! Most of it is just character interaction, and Sky and Sun doing introductions and figuring out nicknames. Super chill and cute, and Sky and Sun get to be the playful couple they are XD. I've also been having fun trying to figure out how to not lose my mind drawing brickwork and cobblestone cause the group is headed up to Hyrule Castle and oooooh boy cobblestone my beloathed. But ye! I've been having fun!

Thank you so much for the ask, it really means a lot to me that you reached out :D

I hope you're having a wonderful day/evening! 💜