Chapter Text
War did not have a very restful sleep that night, though it was more because of the nightmares than the coughing that’d been keeping him up every night since he’d fallen in that damned lake. Every time he closed his eyes it seemed like something was just waiting to torment him: fragments of memories or scenarios in which Warriors didn’t wake up. When he woke up with a startled gasp, shaking with tears rolling down his face right as the sun was starting to rise, he decided it wasn’t worth it to go back to bed. He couldn’t even remember what he’d been dreaming of right before he woke for the last time, but it took a good while for the fear to leave him.
The innkeeper had been bringing them their breakfast and War’s tea at a very consistent time each day so War figured he had a bit of time still to calm himself down and make himself look presentable before the young man arrived. He glanced over at Warriors, watching him for a minute to make sure he was still breathing before he pushed himself up and headed over to the small attached bathroom. His back made a horrendous sound as he got up but he just groaned and kept moving, he wanted to feel better and he was getting bored from laying around rotting in his misery for the past few days.
When he saw himself in the mirror he involuntarily made a shocked noise of disgust. No wonder everyone had been looking at him like they were worried he was going to drop dead, he looked horrid. His curls were an absolute mess, not that he expected anything else after he’d fallen in a lake and hadn’t done much to attempt to detangle his hair since then, and he was so pale it made his scars and the freckles across his cheeks stand out more than usual and made the dark shadows under his eyes look downright frightening. The dark facial hair that’d grown in after four days really wasn’t helping either, he looked like absolute shit.
There were plenty of people who called him vain, who accused him of obsessing over his appearance, and it had reached a point where he’d grown so tired of trying to correct the rumors that he’d just decided to embrace it. He played the part of the hero to fit the expectations that had been set for him, the ones related to his duty to the crown as well as the ones that painted him to be an idiot, because he’d noticed there was an advantage to having his intelligence and strength underestimated. He let the noblemen assume he was too focused on his looks to be able to notice things happening right under his nose, he let them believe finding a gray hair would send him into a coma (as if he hadn’t been getting gray hairs since he was seventeen years old), he let them think he was stupid because then they didn’t pay much attention to him. Then they just brushed him off and ignored him.
But even if he did play up his obsession over his looks, War did like taking care of himself. He liked to look presentable and professional and he preferred when his hair cooperated with him and looked neat instead of being a frizzy mess, so he spent a decent amount of time that morning trying to make himself look more like him. He wanted to feel more like himself, and not the absolute mess he’d been over the past few days.
It took a rather long time to get all the tangles out of his hair, he hadn’t been able to finish with that before the innkeeper had come in with breakfast and his tea. He’d been able to shave and wash his face and switch out his shirt for the lighter weight one he’d been wearing when he arrived on the mountain and he’d been able to pull his tunic on, feeling a bit better in his normal clothes, but he’d spent another hour after breakfast fussing with his hair before he brought down the dishes to the innkeeper.
“You’re looking much better,” the young man smiled at him, taking the tray with all the dishes on it that War had managed to carry down in one trip this time.
“Thank you,” he gave him a small smile back. “I’m feeling much more like a person now.”
“That’s good to hear!” The innkeeper told him.
War still didn’t feel so great, his chest still ached from the coughing and he had no idea if the fever reducer was the only thing keeping him from feeling worse still, but he felt better than he had in days and before he got too tired again he decided to step outside for a moment and just sit on the steps of the inn. The fresh air was wonderful, he closed his eyes with a happy sigh when he felt the breeze through his hair, and he let himself sit there and just enjoy the sunlight until he started struggling to stay awake. Heading back inside, he waved to the innkeeper on his way up the stairs back to his room.
Warriors hadn’t moved much at all, and he still seemed alright though very deeply asleep, so War felt comfortable letting himself get some rest as well. He woke up in the afternoon, a few hours before dinner and let himself work on some knitting until it was time to take his next dose of medicine before turning in early once again.
He was concerned but not shocked to find Warriors still asleep when he woke the next morning. He wasn’t sure how he felt about his friend having drank the whole sedative, on one hand he was very, very glad that the damned thing was gone but he couldn’t stop thinking about it being potentially very dangerous to the other hero. Warriors had assured him it was fine but…
War shook his head to stop himself from going down that thought spiral, and pushed himself out of bed to get ready for the day. Doing a shortened version of his usual morning routine made him feel a lot better, and after a peaceful day of just resting the day before, he was feeling more energized than he had since he’d fallen in the lake. He wanted to go outside… Stepping outside the inn yesterday had been nice but he wanted to walk around town. He’d have to take it easy, he knew that, his body wasn’t used to that much movement after days of just laying in bed, but he had to start somewhere and start working to get his strength back so they could get on the road faster.
He took his tea and had some breakfast when the innkeeper brought it for him, and then grabbed his journal and tore out one of the pages from the back. Warriors was still asleep and with the blood and the sedative War wouldn’t be shocked if he didn’t wake up today at all, but in the event that he did he didn’t want to leave his friend wondering where he’d gone so he wrote ‘Went to explore town, I’ll be back at some point. Being careful, I promise. -El’ in his nicest handwriting possible on the torn page and placed it on the small table by the bowl of fruits. He hoped his friend wouldn’t worry and would see the note and maybe eat something if he woke.
When he felt he’d made himself look presentable enough, he tied on his belt and made his bed, neatly putting his things away so the room didn’t look like a disaster before heading out to explore. His goal had just been to walk around, to test his stamina and how much physical activity his lungs could currently handle, and he got annoyed when walking up a slight hill had left him breathless and made his chest ache. There weren’t many places to sit and rest, and he wasn’t desperate enough yet to sit on the street, so he ducked into a few of the open shops to look around. Warriors had gotten more supplies for them so he wasn’t so worried about that, but he did enjoy looking at the beautifully crafted clothing he’d found in one store and the jewelry he’d found in another. The earrings in particular had caught his attention, and he spent a little too long staring at them.
“Is there something that caught your eye?” The lady behind the counter asked him, making him jump.
“O- Oh, no, I was just looking,” he laughed, dragging his eyes away from the small gold hoops he’d been looking at. The lady raised an eyebrow at him, definitely not believing him so he smiled and shook his head with a sigh. “Alright, alright, I liked the little gold hoops. But I really can’t be buying any more earrings, I have way too many and not enough occasions to wear them all.”
“You could always just get another piercing and then wear more,” the woman joked with him, but he raised his eyebrows with a small hum.
That was something he’d been wanting for a while. He currently had two piercings in each ear, the first he’d gotten when he’d gotten to Castletown and the second after the war ended, and he’d been wanting to get more piercings but he’d either been too busy or he’d kept forgetting. He didn’t trust himself to pierce his own ear either.
The lady must’ve seen the genuine consideration on his face, because she very slowly told him, “If that was something you wanted, I can do that here for you?”
War blinked as he thought about it. He didn’t want to risk a new piercing getting infected, but he knew how to care for them and even if he had to sleep outside he was confident, maybe a little too confident, that he’d be able to clean it just fine. Plus he was already taking a medicine to treat infection, so if it did get infected he had something to treat it.
Oh, what the fuck. He might as well go for it.
He ended up leaving the little shop with the small golden hoops and a new piercing in each ear. He’d cleaned the small golden studs he kept in the second hole in his ears and used those for the jewelry in the new piercings because he knew from experience that they wouldn’t bother him and he hadn’t wanted to buy a new pair of smaller earrings as well. The small hoops went into a pouch on his belt, he’d put those in next to his blue ones once his ears were a little less sensitive. It’d been a while since he’d pierced his ears and while they weren’t necessarily painful, his ears just felt warm and he was very aware of the feeling of metal in a place where it had not been previously. He supposed they ached a little but they didn’t really bother him all that much which he was grateful for.
After the jewelry shop he headed next door to look at the stunning pottery, having been intrigued by what was on display in the store window. He quickly got captivated once he walked through the door by the man in the back, the shop owner, sitting at a potter’s wheel, shaping a large lump of clay with such ease and smooth movements that it made it look effortless. War watched in amazement as the lump spun on the wheel and transformed into the shape of a bowl, and it was only when the man brought the wheel to a stop and cut the bowl off to set it on a nearby slab of wood that he noticed War standing there.
“Oh, hello!” He greeted him, drying the water off the wheel with a clay stained rag before reaching to his side to grab one of the bowls he’d completed, setting it gently on the dried wheel upside down. “If you have questions about anything I’m happy to answer them.”
The man probably meant about the hundreds of items for sale around the store, but War found himself walking a bit closer to him and asking, “Why do you put it upside down?”
“To trim the bottom of it,” the man answered with a smile, ripping a small amount of clay off of a large chunk he had sitting on the table next to him and using it to anchor the bowl to the wheel. “I threw this one a little bit ago, the clay needs to be quite wet when you work with it on the wheel to shape it but when you want to cut away from it and trim a foot for the bowl the clay needs to be more firm.”
War nodded along as if he understood all of what was being said to him, but any confusion he’d had started to disappear when the man grabbed a small metal tool and began to work on the spinning bowl. He watched as pieces of clay peeled off, pulled away from the bowl by the tool as the man shaped the bottom of it into something that resembled what he was familiar with seeing from any bowl he’d ever held in his life. It was no longer completely flat across the bottom, there was a small rim that was carved into it.
Time stopped existing and he stood there until his knees started to ache, trapped by the mesmerizing spinning clay and how beautifully crafted each thing the man made was, but eventually he did force himself to leave after thanking the shop owner for letting him watch.
He wanted to have been able to walk across the whole town, it would’ve been a good slow walk for him but the fact that he had to walk uphill was taking a lot more out of him than he liked. Several times throughout the day he’d found himself coughing, but there was a moment where he’d breathed a little too quickly that had left him coughing for too long to be anything but concerning and he needed to lean heavily on the side of a nearby building for a moment to recover. Tears pricked at his eyes and he had to bite his lip to stop himself from letting out a frustrated groan because this shouldn’t be an issue for him. He should be able to run through the whole town with no issue, walking like this shouldn’t be so physically taxing for him but it was and he hated feeling so weak when he knew he was stronger than this. War hadn’t had the strength yesterday morning or today to look at himself in the mirror when he’d lifted his shirt to change it, he didn’t want to know if him being so ill and not being able to eat as much had resulted in visible weight loss like it had last time he was sick because if it had he would’ve sat down and cried and he was sick of crying.
He was sick of feeling so overwhelmed and anxious and nervous and emotional, and now that he was doing better physically he found it easier to think more rationally but so much had happened in the past few days that he was still trying to process. With the sedative gone and completely impossible to be used on him he did feel more relaxed, though he was still stressed about how Warriors had just… drank the whole damn thing with no warning. And he was very shocked by himself having found the courage to tell the other hero why he hated the sedative so much, because he’d barely told anyone about that.
Mask knew he didn’t like sedatives because the kid had seen first hand during the war how he lost his shit whenever well meaning medics had tried to pour it into his mouth, and the kid knew how badly he feared poisons so War wasn’t shocked to learn that Mask had just assumed that War wasn’t a big fan of people making him eat or drink anything, that he just hated the idea of people sneaking things he didn’t know about into his meal. Which was absolutely true, he did hate that, but that wasn’t the main reason he disliked the sedatives. He’d never told Sidney the reason outright, but he was pretty sure the marquess had managed to use context clues and make an educated guess in the correct direction. They’d never spoken about it, but the one time he’d been with War while he was sick and a doctor had suggested a sleep aid, Sidney had shut it down for him faster than War had had time to process the question.
Impa knew. She had some terrifying ability to know everything, War was convinced, because he hadn’t told her directly but she was there with him when he’d finally made it back to camp after escaping from the Temple of Souls and she hadn’t left his side until he’d calmed down enough to sleep. She’d figured out what happened immediately, somehow.
Linkle was the only person he’d told about his experience as the sorceress’s prisoner, he’d written a few simple sentences on a piece of paper for her to read before throwing the page into the fire that same night he’d gotten back to camp. They hadn’t spoken about it since, it wasn’t even a discussion so much as War passing her the paper, but Linkle was really the only person he’d told. The only person he’d actually explained things to, the only one who hadn’t just made assumptions from his behaviors and reactions and happened to come to a correct conclusion. It wasn’t something he liked thinking about, the shattered memories from that week tormented him frequently enough that he considered any moment where he was able to not think about it a blessing, and it was something he found impossible to talk about.
But he’d felt the need to explain himself to Warriors. His friend had had no idea, he was just trying to help, and War had needed to explain that he wasn’t being stubborn on purpose. He just couldn’t believe he’d actually managed to tell someone, verbally, about how he’d been drugged. War had never said that out loud before.
They’d had very different experiences, if Warriors’s vampirism wasn’t the most obvious sign then his reaction to what War had told him the other night was, but for some reason telling the other hero things felt very safe to do.
After taking a bit of time to rest against the side of the building, he kept walking through the small town. He did find the dagger throwing thing that Warriors had mentioned to him, and while he wasn’t the best at it he did manage to win enough to cover the price of the earrings and new piercings as well as earn a little extra.
Normally he wouldn’t have been that exhausted by throwing things, but he was still recovering and wore himself out quite quickly. His lungs burned as he walked away with his prize, and he would’ve gone back to the inn to rest but that felt too far so he wandered a little until he found a small garden with flowers and a bench. It was absolutely perfect, a peaceful little space to sit and catch his breath, and War let himself relax and just watch the small fountain.
Warriors woke up with a start, like somebody tapped him on the shoulder when he wasn’t expecting it. He bolted up right, jostling his arm slightly when he did so, though he found his arm didn’t really hurt anymore. It was sore and aching but he didn’t feel the sharp pain he usually felt when he moved his arm in the last couple of days.
He decided to keep the bandages on though. It wouldn’t hurt to keep it on until somebody could look at it. Warriors looked around the room to tell War that his arm was feeling better but he couldn’t see the other hero. The door to the attached bathroom was left ajar, so he doubted that War was in there.
“War?” he asked as he slowly stood up. His muscles ached and his legs shook slightly but he made it to his feet. “War?” he asked again, though he could see that War wasn’t in the room. Where did he go? How long was he asleep for? Did War get tired of waiting for him? Did he end up with a heart attack afterall and die?
He stepped into his boots, pulled his cloak on, and ran down the stairs. He ran past the innkeeper and barely closed the door behind him.
War had to be somewhere in town, right? He didn’t die or leave him because he took too long to wake up. That wasn’t like War. But where was he? Was he even well enough to be outside on his own? Why would he just leave without leaving a note or anything to tell him where he went?
It took Warriors a second to realize that he could probably smell War and track him that way. The first time they met, he smelled like oranges but he couldn’t quite pick it up this time. However, he could smell all the medicine he had to take. War was in town then! Warriors followed the trail as quickly as he could, it would have been faster if his body cooperated better, but eventually found the man sitting down on a bench near a small garden.
“There you are!” he panted. “I was so worried when I woke up and you weren’t there!”
The other hero was startled at his voice, turning around quickly, but once he actually saw him he relaxed and then looked at him with a small frown. “I left you a note? I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”
He blinked at War. How long had he been asleep for? War looked significantly better than he did when Warriors fell asleep, almost like he never got knocked into the water. He doubted such a change could take place overnight. “What…? What note?”
“I left it by the fruits on the table,” the other hero told him. “I wasn’t sure if you’d wake up before I got back or not but I didn’t want you to think I’d gone off doing something stupid if you did. Maybe I should’ve put it on your bed…”
Warriors frowned as he thought. Did he notice fruit in the room? “I… don’t think I noticed that we had fruit in the room,” he said quietly. He could have saved himself quite a bit of a headache if he just looked around the room better instead of going outside as soon he noticed that War wasn’t there. He sat down beside him and adjusted his cloak so that it could protect his face better. “How long was I out for?”
“All of yesterday,” War sighed, leaning back on his hands and watching the little bird that came to rest on the edge of the fountain. “Plus this morning. I was about to head back to the inn to check on you and maybe take a nap before dinner, I just really needed to rest for a moment so I stopped here.”
“I told you I would wake up,” he mumbled as he looked at him again. He could smell a little bit of blood now that he was so close to War and after looking the other hero up and down for injuries, his eyes finally landed on his ear. “Did you… get your ears pierced while I was passed out?”
“Oh, yeah I did,” his friend blinked, tucking his hair behind his ear so Warriors could see better. “It wasn’t really my plan when I woke up this morning, but I found a little store.”
“They look nice,” he said simply, though honestly. They didn’t look fancy or anything but simple, gold studs really did look good on the other hero. “I wish I could get more piercings. I never tried it but I always figured that my curse would try to heal over them, regardless if I had something in them or not.”
“Ah, yeah…” War frowned. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked quietly, raising an eyebrow as he did so. Was War apologizing for getting to enjoy something he couldn’t or was it for something else?
“Well, mostly for worrying you so much,” his friend let out a small laugh, but it sounded a bit nervous and concerned.
“Well, I should have looked around more before I left. Or talk to the innkeeper or something. I made myself panic for no reason,” Warriors shrugged. “If you want to make it up to me though, you could look at my arm when we get back. It feels a lot better.”
“Yeah?” The other hero smiled. “That’s good, I’m really glad.”
“It aches a bit but there isn’t a sharp pain when I try to move it,” he explained. “I know you didn’t like my decision to drink the whole bottle but it did help.”
“It startled me,” War mumbled. “But I’m glad it could help you.”
“It worked out in the end,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, what else did you do while I was passed out? Anything fun?”
“I mostly just rested yesterday,” his friend told him, “I was a bit exhausted and I didn’t sleep very well. And then today I’ve just been walking around, looking in some shops, found the dagger throwing thing and got a small prize from that.”
“Just a small prize?” he asked. “I thought you would do better since you use them as weapons.”
“It was hard for me to throw them,” War sounded a little frustrated. “I exhausted myself rather quickly.”
“Maybe you need to go again when you get more rest. We could compete,” Warriors said with a smirk. “It could be fun.”
“Oh, so you can beat me because you’re stronger than I am?” The other hero teased, letting out a genuine laugh. “Sounds unfair.”
“Strength doesn’t really matter for throwing daggers! But if you’re asking for a spar, I will use my superior strength against you,” Warriors said with a grin.
War let out a scoff, feigning offense and raising a hand over his heart. “And now you want to beat me up?” His pout would’ve been convincing if he wasn’t clearly fighting to hold back his laughter, and he masked his giggles with a fake sniffle. “I can’t believe it, I’m ill, Warriors.”
“And my arm is broken, so fair is fair,” he said with a light hearted hiss. “But for real, do you want to spar? I feel like we haven’t truly seen what the other can do.”
“I do,” War nodded. “I’m… I’m genuinely tired of sitting here feeling so useless… I think it’d be good for me to spar.”
“How about we head back to the inn? We should see where my arm is at first and if it looks good, then we spar,” he said as he hopped to his feet and turned around to look at War again.
“Yeah, we’ll check your arm first.” His friend frowned, looking a little nervous. “I obviously don’t want you to beat my ass, but I think I’d go crazy if I could tell you were going easy on me. I genuinely don’t know how much strength I have right now but… I do want to at least try.”
“I’m sure we can find a balance. I’ll match whatever you give me. Besides, I want to wait until tomorrow at least. I’m sure you’ll be even stronger tomorrow after more food and more rest. Does that sound good?” he asked, holding out his right hand out for War.
“Yeah,” War gave him a small smile, taking his hand and letting himself be pulled to his feet. “That sounds good.”
“I need to eat too. I’m fucking starving… Not for, you know. Solid food will do,” he said quietly so that only War could hear.
“It is getting close to dinner,” his friend told him as he started heading away from the little garden. “Would you want to grab something on the way back or ask the innkeeper if he could bring us dinner early?”
“Let’s ask if he has something almost ready. I can wait a little bit,” he said with a shrug. “What's another hour or two if it’s not ready?” Besides, if he was really hungry, he had some plums and jerky to eat to hold him over.
“Alright, I’m gonna try to stay awake until dinner,” War told him, mumbling something under his breath about how grateful he was that the walk back was down hill.
Once they got back to the inn, War walked up to their room while Warriors stayed at the counter. “Just out of curiosity, is it possible to have dinner early? And are we all paid up for our rooms? I don’t know if Eleno asked for more nights while I was sleeping.”
“I can get that early for you,” the innkeeper nodded. “And no, but you can pay any time just as long as it’s before you leave. Would you like the tea with dinner or at the same time as usual?”
“The tea should probably be at the same time as usual. I don’t want to throw his dose off. Thanks again for everything!” With that sorted out, he went upstairs and stepped out of his boots once he got close to his bed. “Dinner will be early but your tea will not be. I didn’t think it was a good idea to take it early,” he said to War.
His friend had taken his boots off and thrown himself face down on his bed, and he let out a low groan and kicked his feet in response. “Yeah, it’d be best to take it at the same time as usual.”
“Are you going to last until tea time?” Warriors asked as he found the bowl of fruit and the note that War left behind for him. He picked it up and read it quickly, thankful that their script was pretty much the same. “Your handwriting is very nice. I think I might call you El from now on though.”
“Go for it!” War flipped himself onto his side. “It’s what all my close friends back home call me for a nickname. It works nice because it also sounds like ‘L’ for ‘Link’ so no one bats an eye when Impa calls me that or something. And also my handwriting is shit.” He let out an exhausted cackle. “I just tried really hard because I wanted you to be able to read it. Open my journal to any page and it’s a mess.”
“I should be honoured but I wanted to tease you,” he said with a grin. “I won’t look in your journal though, unless you really want me too, for some reason.”
“I was mostly kidding but genuinely you would not be able to read it,” War snorted. “The writing is cramped and illegible, sure, but also none of it is in Common.”
“Now I want to see. You haven’t said much about that other language and I’m kind of curious about it!” he said as grabbed a handful of raspberries from the bowl and shoved them into his mouth.
“Here.” War let out a strained sound as he reached for his journal sitting on the small table between their beds, opening it to a random page. He frowned at it for a moment, flipping through parts until he landed on something he seemed okay with before setting the book towards the end of the bed, open for Warriors to see. “I don’t mind if you touch the page but be careful you don’t have raspberry juice on your fingers or something.”
Warriors looked down at his hands. There was some raspberry juice on his fingers so he decided to grab his rag from his bag and wiped his fingers and mouth clean. He studied the words on the page to see if he could make out any words or patterns, but War was right when he said it was cramped. He was sure if it was in Common, he could read it but as it was, it was hard for him to even focus on any of the words when he couldn’t recognize any of it.
But, he still found it interesting to even look at another language all together. The letters were familiar, though they had marks above them that he didn’t really recognize, but the way they were put together was pretty different.
“So… what is this page about?” he asked.
“Some of the stuff I learned from when we visited Skyloft last,” War told him. “I was talking with Owlan about how to help Sky and I wanted to remember everything he told me, that’s what’s on this page.” He pointed to the left one.
Right, he mentioned something about Sky needing some sort of medication every day, though Warriors didn’t think it was his place to ask what his Sky needed the medication for. “Do you have notes on all your allies?”
“I do actually,” he laughed. “I think I’ve mentioned how my memory is awful, so I keep a lot of notes on important details I don’t want to forget but also I watch my brothers spar and I take notes on where they can improve. They ask for my critique, I’m not giving them unwanted advice or anything. I don’t have much down in here or any of the filled out journals I have at home about Impa, mostly just things she’s told me that I want to keep track of, and I don’t write anything about Zel. I know my native language is uncommon in Hyrule, which is why I write in it because if this journal ever falls into the wrong hands it’ll be hard to translate, but I refuse to compromise her safety in any way. There is no information about her in here that is not already known to the public. Lana has like… thirteen entire pages, probably.” War sighed, staring down at his journal. “In this one alone. Most of my notes on my allies from home are in other journals, not this one.”
“Am I in here?” he asked before he could convince himself not to. “You had me rattle off everything about vampires that I thought you needed to know when we were back at the cabin and I think I still missed things. Did you write all of that down?” He couldn’t help but to frown a little. He didn’t think he was important enough to be in his friend's journal. Soon enough, that entry would be useless. At least with his other allies, they would be travelling together for months, not weeks.
“Yeah, I did,” the other hero nodded, grabbing the journal and holding it up so Warriors couldn’t see the pages as he flipped to the marked spot where he must’ve been most recently writing before going back a good few pages and setting it back down on the bed again, facing him so he could see.
Warriors could see his name at the top of the page - not Warriors but his actual full name. He couldn’t make out anything else since it was written in that language he couldn’t understand. He still wasn’t sure how felt about War thinking he was important enough to use up journal space for him though.
“Should we look at my arm now?” he asked, hoping that War wouldn’t question the abrupt change in topic.
“Oh, shit, yeah,” his friend blinked, closing his journal and setting it back on the small table.
Warriors took a seat beside War on his bed, sitting on his right, and held out his arm for War to unwrap.
The other hero was very gentle, quickly unwrapping his arm but taking care not to move it around too much. “Is it alright if I touch?”
“Go ahead,” he answered as he looked at his arm. The bruising cleared up and the swelling was gone, so he hoped that meant good things for the bones in his arm.
Thin fingers pressed gently along the outside of his arm along the bone there. “It feels alright, is the pressure causing you pain at all?”
“A little. It’s like a pinch. It’s not that painful but I can still feel it,” he answered honestly.
War hummed, frowning to himself as he carefully poked at the rest of his arm. “More like an ache in the whole bone or is it sharp and focused to specific spots?”
“Sharp for like a second on a specific spot,” Warriors mumbled after thinking about it for a moment. He whole arm ached a little when he moved his fingers but sometimes it did hurt when War pressed down. “One of the spots was in the middle.”
“Do we have any more healing potions or blood for you?” His friend asked. “I don’t know if that’d be enough to completely heal it and take away the pain but it would maybe at least help some. You should still be careful with it, since it’s not fully healed and we don’t need you breaking it again.”
“We have potions. I bought enough for each of us to carry two and I think you still have the half potion from before on top of that,” he answered. “Do you think I need a whole one?”
“I think it wouldn’t hurt,” War nodded. “Especially if we do want to attempt sparring tomorrow.”
He couldn’t really argue. He did want to spar with the other hero and see where the differences in their backgrounds led them and he wanted to see if they were road ready yet. If one of them got too tired after a spar, they could always stop and rest up more with plenty of food and shelter available. It was harder on the road to get exactly what they needed. “Yeah, that’s true. You can find some in my bag if you want to grab it.”
War went over to grab his bag, muffling a small cough as he did, but he found the healing potion quickly and handed it over to him. Warriors opened it mostly with his right hand and drank the whole thing, setting the empty bottle down on the table.
“It probably would have helped if I let you look at it before,” he mumbled as he wiggled the fingers on his sore arm.
His friend let out a small sigh as he sat back down on his bed, bringing his legs up and crossing them to sit more comfortably. A small frown appeared on his face but it was hard to tell exactly what emotion he was feeling. “Probably, yeah,” War said quietly, “but I understand why you didn’t.”
“Really?” The other hero didn’t look exactly happy when Warriors refused to let War look at his arm but he didn’t think he could have handled it if War said something about the state of his arm at the time, not when he already got lectured. He also didn’t want to be touched at all when he was tired, in pain, and overwhelmed. By the time the doctor looked at it, the pain was practically gone and he also had some time to focus on something else and calm down a little bit.
“I never responded well to my old commanding officer trying to shove a healing potion down my throat to get me to shut up after he screamed in my face,” his friend mumbled, messing with a little loose thread on his trousers. “So yeah, I get it.”
“You didn’t scream in my face, War. You just raised your voice and lectured me when I was too tired and worried to deal with it. I obviously haven’t met your old commanding officer and quite frankly, it would be good for him if I didn’t, but from what you've told me, I don’t think you were acting like him at all. It’s not quite the same situation,” Warriors said quietly.
War blinked up at him in shock, staring at him for a moment before looking back at his trousers with a guilty expression on his face. “I still shouldn’t have done that. I… I didn’t choose my words well and my tone was unforgivable, but I was upset that I had no idea you were hurt. I do care about you, you know, and I don’t want to hurt you, and because I didn’t know about your arm I easily could’ve… I probably did.”
“It wouldn’t have been your fault even if you did. I obviously knew that it was broken the whole time and I should have been more careful with it. I didn’t want you to know until you were feeling a bit better because I knew you would focus on my arm and not yourself,” Warriors said quietly. “And I meant it when I said I forgive you.”
“Were you scared of me when I yelled at you?” The other hero asked impulsively. Immediately after he’d shut his mouth he looked like he regretted saying anything, but then let out a small sigh and decided that since he’d asked he might as well continue. “Were… I didn’t… Well. I was worried that when you told me you didn’t want me looking at it and when you backed away that you were afraid I’d, like… hurt you or something.”
Warriors blinked at him. Was that how it came across? That he was scared of War? “You surprised me, and my feelings were hurt, but I wasn’t scared. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me or make it worse. I just… really didn’t want to be touched because I was overwhelmed and I guess I don’t actually ever say that. I just kind of move out of the way when I don’t want to be touched.”
“That’s fair,” his friend whispered, nodding as he spoke. They sat in silence for a moment before War cleared his throat, triggering a small coughing fit. He rolled his eyes as he did, and he at least seemed more annoyed than pained by it. “Should’ve fucking known not to do that. Force of habit, I guess.”
“What? Clearing your throat?” Warriors asked with a raised eyebrow. “Do you need some water for that? It sounded kind of harsh… at least compared to how your coughs have been today.”
“You already know I’m weird so what’s one more stupid ass thing,” War grumbled under his breath before letting out a sigh and speaking at a normal volume. “I get anxious and for some reason convince myself my throat is closing up sometimes, and it’s annoying and genuinely stupid but it’s become a habit to clear my throat before that feeling starts to happen. Except now that’s been triggering an awful lot of fucking coughing lately and it’s getting irritating. But uh, yeah, drinking something would probably be good…”
Warriors frowned at him but he decided to focus on what he could focus on instead. “Do you have water in your bag or do I need to get it for you?” he asked.
“I have water,” the other hero mumbled, “I can get it.”
“If you’re sure…” he muttered. He didn’t mind helping but also didn’t want to crowd War. If he wanted to do it and it wasn’t going to hurt him, Warriors didn’t mind just letting War do it. It could also be in his bag, which Warriors didn’t really didn’t like digging through anyway.
War pulled his flask from a pouch on his belt and took a small sip. While he was drinking there was a small knock at the door and the innkeeper called from the hall to inform them that dinner was ready.Warriors shot to his feet and let the man in.
“Thanks again. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble,” Warriors said as the man walked inside with a tray. They definitely needed to tip this poor man for everything they put him through.
“Not at all!” He smiled, setting the tray down for them. “And I’ll be back with the tea in a couple hours!” He quickly walked out the door and closed it behind him. Dinner was plain rice with some sauce in a bottle to add to it, steamed vegetables, and some meat. Everything was set on different plates for them to mix as they wanted with empty plates underneath just to make room on the tray. Warriors immediately pulled out one of those empty plates and after setting it down, he started piling the cooked meat onto his plate but he was kind enough to leave some for War.
“It’s too bad that they are unlikely to bring raw meat up here,” he mumbled. “Cooked meat is okay but raw meat is better.”
“We can try to grab you some tomorrow, if you’d want?” His friend slowly walked over, taking a moment to stretch his back before he did. War piled a good portion of rice onto his plate, and did also grab some meat and vegetables.
“If you don’t mind. I don’t really need it, it’s just something I like. I didn’t like it all before the curse, like normal people, but I started eating it after that battle but before I realized I was cursed. It was the only thing that helped with the hunger,” Warriors said quietly as he added some rice and vegetables to his plate as well. He could survive without vegetables and rice but they did look good.
“You deserve to have something you enjoy,” War frowned. “Don’t worry about what I think, get yourself a nice little something. Especially if it makes you feel better.”
Warriors blinked, then nodded. He was used to his own brothers who understood that he liked raw meat but he knew some of them, like Legend, didn’t like watching him eat it. Despite that, he was still comfortable with eating raw meat around them and Wild always saved a little bit just for him. “Does it gross you out though? Just out of curiosity. I might still go to the butcher’s tomorrow and get some blood too while I’m at it… That’s still weird.”
“Not really?” The other hero answered. “I mean I’ve had raw fish?”
Warriors chewed on his lips. He supposed raw fish wasn’t that odd, the only odd raw reaction he got from raw fish was from War and that was only because Warriors couldn’t be bothered to take the scales off. “Legend once gave me a piece of raw meat using his sword because he can’t even touch it. I’ve gotten weird looks when I was eating it before I knew why I wanted it so badly,” he said before he started to eat his dinner.
“I mean I personally don’t like touching it with my hands, but I don’t really think it’s all that weird?” War gave him a small frown, taking a bite of his food and swallowing before he spoke again. “I mean, fuck, during the war when we were starving to death and it was pouring out and we could barely keep a fire we all consumed somewhat raw meats. Did a lot of us end up with food poisoning? Yeah, but it was a risk we were willing to take because the other option was no food at all. I personally don’t like raw anything except for fish, but I don’t find you eating it gross.”
“We ate stale bread and uncooked vegetables that were hard to eat,” Warriors said almost fondly before stuffing some of the very much cooked vegetables into his mouth. “You’re very kind about the raw meat though.”
“Our supplies got cut off somewhat frequently,” the other hero sighed. “We ate whatever we could, which sometimes meant having to hunt and pray there’d be a deer and pray there’d be enough for everyone. Which meant Mask wouldn’t fucking eat anything.”
“He didn’t eat meat?” Warriors asked. His Mask didn’t eat meat back then either but Time nowadays would eat it if it was in a dish. He didn’t go seek it out but he would eat it if somebody made a dish with it.
“Still doesn’t,” War confirmed. “And I respect that, I’m not like… trying to force him to eat it. But I didn’t want the kid to starve either, you know? He was already so little and when we had absolutely nothing it was hard to find something for him. And you know me I always have some cashews or something around but I’d run out of them sometimes and I felt awful eating in front of him.”
Warriors paused from eating for a moment to ask, “Did he not eat until your supplies arrived, then? He lived, so he must have had something to eat eventually. Do you guys have problems now?”
“Kid’s always been real good at just finding things, and the guy fucking knows his plants,” War shook his head with a fond smile. “He’d pick little things as we traveled, and gods he was so quick with it too I rarely ever noticed. You could shake him upside down and so many mushrooms and berries would fall out of his pockets. He got by with his little stash, he’d share some of it with myself, Tune, Proxi, Impa and some others, but that ran out sometimes too. Longest he went without food was maybe two days through a desert before we were able to get him something. And for the most part he’s fine now, he’s not allergic to meat so when there are no other options he’ll just take the meat out of whatever dish has been made so he can eat. My brothers and I have run into issues where our stored food ran low, and it was…” The other hero paused and bit his lip, pushing some rice around his plate with a frown for a bit before letting out a sigh and continuing. “They prioritized me, Wind, and Hyrule. Those two really needed the food, I mean we all did, but I wish they would’ve focused on the kids and not me. It was a rough time for all of us though, Twilight and I got into an argument- That turned into a physical fight-” War covered his face with his hands.
Warriors could take a guess as to why they prioritized War. His weight didn’t look too bad to Warriors, a little on the skinny side but nothing for him to worry about, but he felt like it could change quickly if there was a lean period. He kept those thoughts to himself though as he didn’t know how War actually felt about himself.
“When we had a lean period, I made myself survive on just blood for like five weeks until I felt like there was enough for me to have solid food again. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Just the smell of their dinner gave me cravings but also… I just felt kind of lonely. I couldn’t be around if Wild was cooking and when I came back, they were in the middle of some conversation that I couldn’t join because I missed a big part of it,” he mumbled with a frown. “ Then, when I felt comfortable eating with them again, my stomach threw a fit. I had to work my way back up to solid food. All I could eat for a bit there was rice soaked in blood.”
“I’m not surprised,” War said softly, but he did look a little worried, “when people experience starvation and lack of nutrients like that, reintroducing things too quickly can make them very sick. I’ve seen soldiers die that way… You gotta take it real slow and work back up to what you’re used to.” The other hero’s expression shifted into something else and it was hard to tell if War had only just seen a lot of this or if he’d also experienced it himself. Warriors decided not to dwell on it too much.
“As far as vampires are concerned, that diet was perfectly normal. Other vampires can only drink blood and they can’t stomach anything else. I’m actually the weird one who can eat solid food at all. The fact that I still wanted solid food after a few weeks and then had a spoonful of cake without throwing it up was actually what made them realize that I wasn’t like them. My stomach got upset for a bit there but I’m grateful I can still eat food,” he said with a smile. “Like this? This is amazing. I would be so upset if I couldn’t eat it at all.”
“I know I have my issues with food, but I think I’d be devastated if I couldn’t eat it anymore,” his friend looked sad as he sat there and imagined it. “I love tasty little treats, and I’ve been having a surprisingly fun time trying new things my brothers make. Most of them are pretty good at making at least one thing, except for Hyrule… He’s good at pairing flavors together, I’ll give him that, but the kid can never cook things for the proper amount of time. It’s either burnt or undercooked.” War let out a laugh before taking another bite of his food.
“My Hyrule also burns food but Wild’s still working on him. I dunno, Wild can make good food but he also eats weird shit like I do, except that I’m a vampire so I can eat weird shit,” Warriors said with a shrug. “I don’t mind undercooked, obviously, and I like a good crunch, but I can’t eat burnt food.”
“Wild really does just eat… anything,” the other hero frowned. “Like literally anything. But he’s one of the best at cooking in our little group so I don’t dread his nights. We rotate so one person doesn’t have to do all the work, and it’s a really nice opportunity to share foods from home.”
“Wild cooks most nights but we all know how to make something if he’s injured or can’t cook for some reason. It’s mostly soup, but they’re different soup recipes so we don’t get tired of it.” Warriors didn’t think he could get tired of soup, even if it was the same soup, but he was still glad that they had a little bit of variety if Wild was out of commission. “Do your Sky and Twilight also really like pumpkins? They were arguing about who had the best ones once before Wild threatened to not use any pumpkins if they didn’t cut it out.”
“They do,” War snorted, “and they’ve gotten into very loud arguments over them too. And then in an attempt to prove who could make the better dish with pumpkin in it, they both made something for us and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Twilight that quiet before. He was so crushed he just sat on the edge of camp sniffing for like an hour. Honestly, I don’t think it was a fair competition. Twi can’t really make many things, and Sky makes some of the best food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. Like he’s second to my Ma and that’s it.”
“I… I actually feel so bad for him. Did you tell him that it seemed unfair?” Warriors said with a frown. He could actually picture how sad that Twilight must have been, especially since his own Twilight also couldn’t make a lot of things. He excelled at making a couple of recipes and even those took a little bit of getting used to.
“Oh he knew it was unfair going into it, we all know Sky’s the best cook out of all of us, but the next time we were in Ordon me and Twilight spent a lot of time with Uli in the kitchen,” War gave him a mischievous little grin. “It was fun getting to cook like that with those two, and Twilight makes that soup for us somewhat frequently now. He always asks me to help him with it but I really just stand there and keep him company, he knows what he’s doing he just doubts himself. And right after their little competition Sky had gone immediately to check on him and he offered to help him make his soup, but Twi just wanted a little space from him for a bit. There are no hard feelings now, even if they do still argue about pumpkins sometimes.”
“I’m glad they figured it out.” He should have figured they would. Their brothers weren’t the same, much like how they weren’t the same, but they still had their similarities. “Sounds like they fight or argue and make up later?”
“Yeah, there’s somewhat frequent arguing between any of us,” the other hero nodded, taking a small bite of his food. “Fights are a little less common, even less so now that we’ve been together so long, but those are usually between Twilight and me. Sky’s a sweet kid, Twilight too, and while he has an insane amount of patience when Sky gets pissed he gets scary. Arguments with him are usually more silly because when he starts genuinely getting upset he’ll walk away and take a break. Twi gets very defensive when you argue with him and he goes from irritated to livid in seconds.”
“I think I’ve only seen Sky get even remotely upset once and that was because I was feeling kind of sorry for myself. He didn’t yell or raise his voice or anything, but he sounded kind of stern. Then he made us a cake,” Warriors mumbled.
“I watched him kill a lynel all on his own because he was having a bad day. We did try to help him but he spotted the thing first and he got so angry at it he handled it all on his own before I could really even process it,” War said very quietly, looking a little haunted by the memory. “From the moment I met him I could tell there was something dangerous about him, and Twilight called me stupid for it because Sky is such a sweetheart, but there’s this… You can feel the power he holds, just by standing near him. It’s something old, and ancient, and terrifying, and when he’s pissed you can just feel it crackle in the air.” His friend let out a small cough before continuing. “He’s usually very good at controlling his anger, I’ll give him that, but he has moments where he gets extremely frustrated, usually with himself, and he needs his space to calm down.”
“Has he ever said anything about what he went through? He hasn’t said much and we also haven’t been to his era at all. We haven’t even gone to Skyloft. I know he didn’t fight Ganon or Ganondorf, that he forged the Master Sword, and travelled with Fi, but I don’t know much other than that.”
“He didn’t say much,” War shook his head. “I learned from the people on Skyloft that he killed a god, but Sky hasn’t brought that up or said anything and I’ll be honest I’m a little too scared to ask. He’s told me a little more about his experiences than the others, mostly because when we’re both having rather shitty health days we’ll just lie around and chat a bit, sometimes Legend or Time will join us. But me and him have become a bit closer recently after something that happened so he does just tell me things now, maybe one day he’ll want to share more of what he’s been through.”
“A god, huh?” he mumbled to himself. Would his Sky ever feel comfortable enough to tell him about this god he destroyed or would Warriors just have to keep that info in the back of his mind? He liked to think they were close but he had a feeling that all of them had secrets that haven’t needed to be shared yet. As much as he cared about his brothers, only War knew about his aunt.
“Yeah, something like that,” the other hero waved a hand with a frown. “The people on Skyloft were friendly and very kind to us but most of them didn’t really give us many details, I’m wondering if that’s because they don’t know all of what happened? There are a lot of islands in the sky just floating around, I bet it was probably hard for information to spread around to everyone.”
“I only know Skyloft from the war so I’ve only been on the big island and the Surface, so you would know more than I do,” Warriors said with a shrug.
“I’ve been there a few times, it’s not my favorite place in the world,” War grimaced. “But it is absolutely beautiful and it’s nice to see Sky so happy to be home.”
“What is it like when it’s not being dragged into a war?” he asked.
“Much, much different,” his friend laughed. As they finished eating their dinner War told him about how the Skyloft he visited with Sky was so much more peaceful, much more full of life. The other hero told him about how he’d been so focused on the battle the first time he was there that he hadn’t been paying attention to much else, and that it’d been nice to see the towns and actually look around at things. There were moments where it seemed like he was specifically trying to avoid what he’d spent his time doing on the island, War spent a lot of time talking about what the rest of his traveling companions had gotten up to, but he did mention a little about how he’d been doing research with Owlan on the Surface.
“This is the second time you’ve mentioned Owlan but I have no idea who you’re talking about.” Sky and Fi were the only ones he really knew from Skyloft and while Sky brought up some names every now and again, he had no face to connect to them to. He didn’t even know what his Zelda looked like.
“Oh really?” War blinked in shock. “He was one of Sky’s old instructors at the academy, he knows an insane amount about plants and medicines. He’s the one who’s made Sky’s meds for him since he’s needed him, and it took him a bit to find the most effective mixture. Though it’s not working as well anymore, so I was working with him to fix the problem and come up with a new plan for Sky.” His friend sighed, biting his lip for a moment before continuing, “I… I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on him right now. To make sure he’s not having issues.”
Warriors frowned at him. It was another reminder of why they needed to get to Lana. He didn’t regret staying at inns for as much time as they have since it was so difficult to get enough rest with just the two of them and there were times where they simply had no choice but to stay so they could recover. Even though they needed to get going, Warriors knew it wasn’t best to push War, and it felt bad to rush him when he’s kept them behind too. The most they could hope for was to have fewer exciting events on the road.
“Sir?” The innkeeper called, knocking on the door. “It’s been a few hours! I have the tea for you and your friend!”
Warriors wasn’t sure if he had to get up and open the door if he only had tea but he did so anyway, just in case. It was the least he could do, really. He opened the door wide to let him in.
“Here you are!” The young man said, setting the small tray with the teapot and two cups down on a clear spot on the table. “If you two are finished I can take the rest of these dishes out of your way?”
“Yes, please,” Warriors said. He stayed by the door and watched as the innkeeper took their dishes and walked out the door with them. He waved to him, then closed the door and took his seat by War. “Can you still do your medicine?”
“Yeah, but I’m going to bed immediately after because my eyes burn and I’m tired,” the other hero pouted, grabbing the bottles he needed to get his medicine together. “It’s good for me to not spend all day sleeping and I really shouldn’t let myself get used to naps but I’ve been up all day and I’m ready to sleep.”
“You should get as much rest as you can if we’re going to spar tomorrow,” Warriors said with a nod. “I think I might go to sleep early too so my arm can heal more.”
“Good idea.” His friend made a displeased face at his tea as he stuck an extra sugar cube in it. “I’m usually very good at getting up early in the mornings, but I’m so damn tired I’m worried I’ll sleep in so if for some reason you’re up before me please wake me up.”
“I doubt I’ll wake up before you but we’ll see,” he mumbled as he drank his tea. Once he finished, he made sure the curtain was closed to avoid getting burned and when War was done with his tea and was getting comfortable in bed, Warriors took the dishes down. When he came back to his room, he bid War a good night and got himself comfort in his bed.