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skyward-floored · 2 months ago

Note

ALSO—

what are Sky and Sun and Hyrule's reactions to what happened to Malon????? (Downfall IAU)

- hero-of-the-wolf

@hero-of-the-wolf So only one of those characters ended up actually showing up in this fic, because FOUR somehow snatched the focus (the sneak). But there will be more with the others at some point :)

(Comes after the tunnel argument fic)

...

They’d been walking for hours, and Four was exhausted.

He tiredly blinked rain out of his eyes as he plodded along beside Wind, his older brother looking just as exhausted as he felt. Wind almost slipped in a puddle, but caught himself, and Four sighed wearily.

The tunnel had finally led them out into a little park somewhere, the exit hidden by weeds and the roots of a tree. Legend said that in the springtime the spot was covered in flowers, but at the moment it just had fallen leaves scattered across it that were the color of blood. They’d slipped out of the park and around the business district they’d ended up in, sticking to side streets and taking shortcuts through alleys.

Luckily for them it was a chilly day, and there weren’t many people around to see Legend and Four in their supersuits, and Ravio obviously limping.

They had taken a break somewhere around lunchtime in a spot Legend had deemed safe (behind some dumpsters), but even the nap and food they’d all had wasn’t enough to regain much of their energy. Four couldn’t even be too happy they were out of the cramped tunnel since it had started to rain shortly after they’d emerged, which made their trip even more miserable.

Not to mention they’d had close calls with the authorities twice now, and the stress made Four feel like he was going to throw up.

“Are we there yet?” Ravio groaned, leaning against Legend a little extra-dramatically.

Legend rolled his eyes and shoved him back, though he still kept his arm around his shoulders to support him. “No, we’re not there yet,” Legend grumbled. “If we were there, I’d be taking a hot shower or a nap, not plodding through side streets half-soaked and being hunted by the stupid government.”

“Fair. I would kill for a hot bath,” Ravio sighed dreamily, and Four saw Wind crack a tiny smile.

Ravio had started talking again an hour or two ago, and Four at least appreciated the dark-haired teenager’s dramatics. It was a little bit of light in the sea of unfamiliarity he was currently swimming through, and took his mind off some of the stress.

And with Wind being unusually quiet and Legend focused like a laser on their goal, Ravio was pretty much the only one of them willing to so much as crack a joke.

Ravio opened his mouth to keep talking, but Wind suddenly motioned for them to stop, and held his hand out, obviously listening to the wind.

“Patrol,” he whispered urgently, and Four held back a whimper, sick of the whole thing.

He wanted to go home. He wanted to go home so badly it hurt.

Legend nodded at Wind’s warning, and dragged Ravio away behind a pile of trash cans, Wind and Four hurrying behind them. They all crammed into the damp spot, Ravio hissing through his teeth when his leg got squished, but they didn’t have time to reposition before footsteps pounded down the street, mixing with the sound of the rain.

Four squished himself up to Wind’s side, and they all held their breath as the group marched right past their hiding place. Muffled radio noises and some complaints about the rain drifted through the air, and Four closed his eyes, heart pounding in his throat.

But after what felt like ages, the steps faded away again, and Legend finally whispered an all clear.

Ravio sighed in relief as they all squirmed back out from the trash cans, letting Legend help him stand again. Four was impressed by the dark-haired boy’s endurance— Ravio had made some somewhat dramatic complaints during their trip, but he’d kept up with the rest of them fairly well, even with his leg. He was tougher than he’d expected.

“Hey, c’mon,” Wind said with a nudge to Four’s arm, and Four realized he’d been staring into the distance without moving. “...You okay, Four?”

Four sighed. “Fine,” he replied quietly, ignoring his headache and exhaustion and low-level terror that was hounding his steps. It was fine. They just had to keep going. And Four needed to stay numb to everything or else he’d get so upset he’d probably split and that really wouldn’t end well right now.

“Okay,” Wind murmured in reply, and gave him another gentler nudge.

Then they got moving yet again.

The afternoon dragged on, tense and damp, all of them blindly following Legend. They’d moved a little further out from the city into a more rural area, where the houses had bigger yards, and more trees were visible. There were still signs of the controlling mess that the government had become, but it felt a little less oppressive out here.

Or maybe Four just wanted to think that.

The rain increased, going from a drizzle to a shower as they walked. Four slipped more than once in puddles that were deeper than they looked, and after a while he slipped into something of a daze, just mindlessly putting one foot in front of the other.

Step. Step. Splash.

Don’t think about Mom. Don’t think about Twilight. Don’t think about home.

Step. Step.

Step.

...

The grey sky had begun to darken by the time Legend finally came to a stop, rain pattering steadily on their heads. They’d stopped in front of a medium-sized, perfectly normal-looking house, and Four wearily raised his head to look at it.

After hearing so much about what Sky was supposedly doing, he’d sort of guessed his house would look less... normal.

He’d kind of been expecting a more secret-basey thing. Or an abandoned-looking warehouse, maybe. At least some kind of fake “go no further!” sign that you’d spin around and find a keypad on, and after putting in the secret code, you’d slide into a big secret base.

...Or maybe he’d just read too many of Wind’s comic books.

“This is it?” Wind whispered, and Legend nodded, relief clear in his gaze.

“This is it.”

He shooed Wind, Four, and Ravio into a bush where they’d be hidden, then turned invisible, nothing but a space where the rain should be falling any evidence that he was there. Soft footsteps trailed up to the house’s front step, and then a series of taps came from the door, ones Four thought sounded familiar.

A long moment of silence went by before the door creaked open, a blonde woman peering out at the street. Legend waited a second, then made his body flicker once, just long enough to show that he was there.

The woman’s expression somehow both lightened and creased, and she opened the door wider, saying something that Four couldn’t make out. Then Legend became fully visible, and he turned towards the bush, motioning for them to come over.

“It’s safe,” he called softly, and Wind and Four slowly emerged from the bushes again, tugging Ravio with them.

Legend waited on the porch until they joined him, and then all four of them entered the house, cold and wet and shivery with exhaustion. The blonde woman pulled Legend into a tight hug mere moments later, uncaring of the wet clothes or mud, and Four realized with a jolt that it was their aunt Sun, her hair shorter than what he was used to, face stressed.

“Legend, oh my goodness, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said as she squeezed him. “The radio was compromised, we had to cut all communication and didn’t get any of your mom’s messages about everything until about an hour ago.”

“Figured it was something like that,” Legend murmured as he tiredly pulled back from her arms, and Sun let him, running a worried hand along his cheek.

“We thought the worst when we tried to reply and nobody answered,” she continued, then exhaled, obviously quite relieved. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Four took the opportunity to look around the house while she and Legend talked, a little disappointed again. It was a pretty normal house all things considered, sort of familiar, but not exactly, and he saw nothing that would suggest any secret resistance stuff.

...Which, now that he was thinking about it, was probably a good thing.

“And these must be our unusual travelers,” Sun said, and Four looked back to see her looking at him and Wind. As with most people in his family here, her gaze lingered on Four for a moment before moving on. “Wind and Four, right? Malon told us about you a bit. It’s nice to... wait, where’s Malon?”

The already quiet room went deathly silent.

Legend looked at the puddle by his shoes, and a few silent seconds ticked by, dread clawing up Four’s stomach.

“...Legend?” Sun asked again, her voice much more serious.

“She got caught,” he said in a flat voice. “She bought us time we needed, and Cryonis arrested her.”

“Warriors?” Sun asked in horror, and Four saw Wind swallow.

“He was there, but it was mostly these soldier guys that did it,” Wind added on, and Legend glared at him. Wind ignored it. “But... yeah. She saved us. And got arrested.”

Sun looked stricken, and she leaned against the wall, processing the information.

“Hey, um, I’m really sorry to interrupt,” Ravio spoke up in a sort of wobbly voice, “but I’ve been shot at, rescued, shot at again, escaped again, been walking on a torn-up leg all day, and the last 48 hours have just kind of sucked. Do you have somewhere I could sit?”

Sun immediately straightened and nodded, putting a kind hand on his back. “Of course, I’m so sorry. You’re Ravio, aren’t you? Malon mentioned you in one of her messages.”

Ravio faintly smiled. “That’s me.“

“I’ll get Hyrule up here in a minute, and he’ll fix you right up,” Sun said, and Four smiled a little at the reminder of him. It’d be nice to see Hyrule again. At least somebody was safe.

“Aunt Sun, where’s Sky?” Legend asked before Sun could move, and her face creased.

“He went to your house to see if he could help. Hopefully he’ll stay hidden when he sees what happened... I’ll contact him and let him know you’re safe,” she reassured. “I’m sure you boys are dying for a rest, why don’t you come get dried off, and then I’ll figure out some beds for you.”

She put her hand on Four’s shoulder as she said it, and to his embarrassment, tears suddenly pricked at his eyes. He quickly swallowed them back, but Sun must have seen them, since she gave his shoulder a light squeeze.

That only made them try to come out more, and Four hurriedly wiped his eyes, stuffing down the emotions swirling to life in his chest.

Not right now, he thought, swallowing back the lump in his throat, his legs shaking. Not right now, you’re fine. Just relax, you’re fine. You’re fine.

“Four?” Wind asked, his voice concerned, and Four sniffed, his lip wobbling against his will. “Aw Four.”

Wind quickly tugged him into a hug, and Four swallowed again, sniffling into his brother’s damp sleeve.

This was dumb, why was he crying? Legend wasn’t crying and he’d lost his mom and had no clue where his brother was and his uncle had practically tried to kill him. Four was just homesick and exhausted. Those were hardly on the same level.

Dumb exhaustion, he thought with another sniffle.

“You know you can split if you want, it’s safe here,” Wind reminded quietly, and Four shook his head. He didn’t want to deal with the rush of emotion that would bring. Not in front of everyone, anyway. “Okay.”

Four let a few tears leak out, letting the ache in his throat ease up a bit as they fell. He didn’t let himself sink into the emotion that was threatening to swallow him, and focused on steadying his breathing as Wind held on to him, riding it out. Then he leaned back, wiping his eyes one more time.

“You okay?” Wind asked, and Four noted with a bit of surprise that his eyes were damp as well.

“Yes. I’m okay, just... tired,” Four whispered, and took a deep breath. He did feel a little better now, actually. Not great. But better. “I’m okay. Let’s get dried off.”

Wind looked at him for a second, then nodded, not saying anything. Four awkwardly glanced back over at where Sun stood beside Legend and Ravio, but none of them said anything about the brief cry. Sun just looked sympathetic, and Ravio and Legend were suddenly very interested in the pictures on the wall.

“Lucky for you all, I just finished a load of clean towels,” Sun said with a smile, and then turned to lead them to a different room. “If we’re lucky, they’ll still be warm from the dryer.”

Everyone followed, and though Wind didn’t say anything further to Four, he took his hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Four swallowed, and silently returned it.

#a reminder that Four is younger here than in lu #somewhere in the 9-11 range at this point #he’s just a little guy...#wind is too though he’s only two years older than him #they’re all little guys aaaaaaaaa #answers from the floor #lovely hero of the wolf #downfall iau #fic #writing from the floor #this was originally longer and had Hyrule in it #but I was having trouble making things behave and decided to just tackle that in a different oneshot haha

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