Chapter Text
Legend groaned as Warriors dragged him to the tavern.
"Whhhhyyyy though?" He whined, very much not the responsible adult he usually was with the group.
"Because you need to wind down," Warriors insisted. "Trust me, we're just going to take the evening off, drink a bit, chat up patrons, if you want to take someone to a back room then do it," Legend made a face, "but the point is for you to actually act your age."
"I'm not a child or a delinquent teenager," Legend retorted. "I'm an adult, and I'm perfectly fine the way I act already."
"You’re barely nineteen."
"Yep. Adult."
"You’re a teenager, vet! Go get drunk, get hitched, trip into a fountain, make dumb decisions! And even if things go bad, I'll be right there to bail you out, promise."
They had an eye staring contest, Legend glaring while Warriors just gave him a pleading look.
Legend sighed. "Fine. Fine! I'll have a couple drinks and we'll see how it goes, but goddesses I am not going to be..." he made a face, ""hitching up" with anyone."
"I'll remember that," Warriors promised, not going to tease or correct him on the terminology. "Even if you try while drunk, I'll stop you, okay?"
Legend seemed to appreciate that sentiment and he nodded. Warriors smiled and nudged him to keep walking with him to the tavern.
"Hey, two of your best starters." Warriors sat at the bar while Legend just leaned against it, the bartender nodded and moved to make their drinks. Warriors looked to the younger hero, who was eyeing the tavern itself warily.
"I don’t like this," Legend said bluntly. "Everyone here are people my Aunt said to avoid."
Warriors glanced around and he could give Legend that, it was just past nine so most people had already gotten into their drinks and therefore were getting louder and rowdy.
"Yeah, well, it'll be fine," he promised. "Just talk to some people, do some socializing, maybe some dancing, drink slowly. You hear me? Little bits at a time." Legend nodded. "Now you want me to hang out up here or to hang out with you?"
Legend glanced around uneasily, Warriors could see him already categorizing the patrons, the area, noting escape routes. He let the veteran do that until he nodded.
"I'll... I'll be fine. I'll be back every now and then... it's just... It's just a festival celebration, only indoors."
Warriors grinned. "Exactly." Their drinks were set down and Warriors passed an ID chip for his tab. "So take this, sip at it a bit, and go have fun for once."
Legend stared at his drink, then he sighed softly. He sipped it and made a slight face, but on his second taste he didn't really react.
Warriors realized this was probably the first time the younger hero had actually drunk alcohol... Not that it was a bad thing, but in general that just cemented that Legend had not had any normal teenaged experiences. Sure, there was a chance that Legend just didn't want to step onto this scene and hadn't been a rule breaker as a kid, which he could definitely see.
Unsurprisingly, Warriors era was filled with people who came to taverns to pick up a one night stand, a woman appeared on his side, her dress' bodice unlaced to a point and her breasts on partial display.
He smiled at her, he had no intentions of letting loose himself tonight. He wouldn't get more then two drinks, he'd keep an eye on Legend best he could with the crowded room, and stay as stagnant as possible so he would be found as needed. But he could chat with some patrons to gently reject them.
So he talked to the woman, noted Legend being approached by a young man who seemed a little tipsy but happily introduced himself as Theodore and then introduced a couple other young adults that all warmly welcomed Legend.
As much as he anticipated it, it was still surprising to see Legend begin to unfold as he socialized. You wouldn't ever peg the veteran hero to be extrovert, and yet once you had him in a social situation, how could he be anything less? He was a total social butterfly.
It was a bit amusing, Warriors had to admit. Since Legend was actually chatting with people, he let his supervision cease an little and turned back to the woman and talked. She admitted to financial struggles, and that segwayed into her asking if he'd be willing to pay for some services while she leaned forward and swung her hips.
Warriors ended up just giving her a red rupee and an apologetic, "I can't tonight, sweetheart. I hope you find a good time and a good pay."
She sighed but nodded. She did take the rupee. "I appreciate that--Maybe next time, I definitely want a piece of that."
Warriors just smirked at her and she sashayed away, likely seeing the next object of her attention.
He nursed his drink, talked with an older fellow at the bar, struck up conversation with the bartender, and just had a decent time himself while trying to keep one eye on the vet.
Legend had to admit... Warriors wasn't wrong about letting loose.
The people of his era were kind, and best of all, they had no clue Legend was a hero in his own era. Warriors' era had just the same people as Legend's own, some bad, some good, some mean, some kind. It was exactly as expected but they didn't know he was a hero.
That was a nice change of pace. When the dancing broke out, Legend had debated it before looking at the less than an inch left of his drink... Wars had said to drink slowly but the little bit shot down would be fine... right? It was no worse than some of Maple's potions taste-wise.
He downed the last of his drink and joined in.
As the night went on, Legend managed to remember to drink like four times, going back to Wars who grinned at him and asked if he was having fun. The first time, Legend sarcastically gave an "absolutely not" before shrugging and asking for another drink. Warriors signaled the barman and Legend was going back to the dancing circle.
Legend was very aware of the dangers of alcohol and drinking, he knew inhibitions were lost and things happened, so admittedly he wasn't too surprised when at some point he ended up being someone's coat rack and had a black cape over his shoulders that absolutely drowned him.
He was fairly sure it was one of the guys who first approached him, but frankly he wasn't certain nor did he wholly care, he always enjoyed oversized clothing, and though the cape wasn't quite that, it did practically hide his whole body.
He leaned against a table, dizzy and slowing down fast. Probably drank too much, he'd seen guards black out after drinking.
"Whoa you don't look great," said a voice that was definitely muffled by his own ears. Why did he feel like he was drugged or something? He'd been hit by sedative poisons before, and this felt extremely similar. Was this how getting drunk worked? Did people normally poison themselves? Like he knew alcohol was a poison but he thought the reason people liked it was because it didn't taste or immediately act like a poison! This was just wrong.
A hand wrapped around his arm and his alarm bells went off, but his body didn't cooperate. His legs tried to give out under him but whoever grabbed him supported him.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Every single instinct that he'd been dismissing as being unused to the tavern scene came back tenfold.
He couldn't get his body to work. His legs weren't supporting him, someone else was, and he didn't know who. His soul did not sing with theirs, it wasn't another hero, he didn't know them.
He tried desperately to get away. He had to find the Captain, to call for help because he couldn't move.
His tongue felt like lead, but he still forced his mouth open, trying to call out--
A wall slammed against his back and then someone was kissing him.
Panic overcame his mind, liquid thoughts solidifying into fear and panic. He saw a blur of blue and green flicker behind whoever was driving his already dazed head into the wall, and once it was gone they pulled away, catching his uncooperative body.
Oh goddesses, where was Warriors? He said he'd be nearby in case things went down, well things were going down.
Cold air hit him, the underwater, muffled chatter faded out and he just had to accept that, yeah, this was happening.
He never should've agreed to this.
Warriors couldn't find Legend. He'd looked away a bit too long and then the drunk hero was gone. He'd looked away to break up a fight that started on the other side of the tavern and then Legend was gone.
He walked through the tavern, looking around for the scholar. There was a lot of people making out at the back, but even if a few were blondes, he didn't look much closer than to see if they were wearing red before moving on. He was no voyeur.
He started asking around.
"Oh, the guy with the pink in his hair? I think he drank way too much, someone was helping him out the side door--"
Drank too much? Yeah he was probably just about drunk last Warriors saw, but unless he chugged that last one or gotten another from someone else, which he wouldn't --
Oh, Legend didn't know this scene. Warriors forgot for however experienced their veteran was, this was not something he knew. He was also suddenly extremely aware of how soft and youthful Legend looked, even with the scars.
Not good. Not good at all.
He ran outside the side door and skidded to a stop when he saw a dagger driven into the wooden wall, hanging a blue cap and a letter.
He tore the letter from the dagger.
'Hero,' the letter began, 'You refused to trade your life for the lives of millions to end the war. So we will take the lives of all those you care about, starting with this one.'
Warriors felt his blood run cold.
'You want him back alive? A life for a life, give yours and we will return him where we found him.'
Like a switch was flipped, after the initial realization hit him, he snarled and a burning fire roared in his chest.
He went to the inn and saw Time sitting out on the sofa, immediately perking up when he saw him.
"When the others wake up, head to the castle," Warriors told him.
"What? Why--Captain, where is the Scholar?"
Warriors stopped before he shut the door, he glanced back at Time and for a moment he saw Mask. "You remember that time a band of traitors managed to kidnap you and Tune to use against me?"
Time froze up, eyes flashing with some mix of shock, anger, and fear.
"It seems I didn't make myself clear enough that time. Nobody touches my little brothers. I need a map of the city and nearby areas, my men know the process so--When the others are up, go to the Castle."
"Captain--"
"Sprite."
Time hesitated. "Link. You can't go into this half-cocked. It could be dangerous."
"Oh it will be, but I'm not going to be the one in danger because right now it's the vet whose life hangs in the balance and anyone who gets in my way will find theirs taken from them."