Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Time half-heartedly kicked at the small rock in the path as he walked on, curious to see how long he’d be able to keep going with it before he nudged it so far off the road that it wasn’t worth fetching or until he grew bored of it. He wasn’t in the mood for chatting as many of the others were doing, and it gave him something to do for entertainment besides listen to snippets of conversation and the sound of eight other pairs of boots against dirt.

They’d been told of increased monster activity south of the village they’d spent the previous night in, and the sweet older woman who’d expressed her concerns to them had been relieved when they’d promised her they’d check it out but after walking for hours they’d yet to come across anything. Time had started wondering if somehow they’d gotten turned around and had wandered off in the wrong direction, but when he’d brought up his worries an hour ago the captain had assured him they were following the lady’s instructions perfectly.

“We’re following the path, exactly as she said, and we can’t be going the wrong way,” Warriors had sighed, brushing his hair out of his face before pointing at the sky where the sun had started to duck behind a cloud. “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so we have to be moving south.”

Time knew how the sun worked and he’d grumbled as such to the captain, as well as several additional comments that he’d grown up in the damn woods and wasn’t an idiot, all which had earned him a friendly swat. Years ago, during the war, he might’ve slapped his brother right back, but he’d found himself too tired to do so and with too many thoughts swirling around his brain. And besides, if he changed his mind at any point, Warriors was always close by. He hadn’t missed how the captain now always seemed to station himself behind his right shoulder, and he knew it was because his brother was well aware of his glass right eye and lack of vision on that side. He was touched by the man’s attention to detail and it made him feel safer to know the captain always had his back.

Though Warriors’s confirmation that he wasn’t crazy and that they were going the right way hadn’t been the comfort he’d needed it to be, because the woman had made it seem like the monsters were nearby. They’d been travelling so long Time was starting to worry they’d somehow passed them and left the village vulnerable, or that they were being stalked by the beasts, or that maybe this was all a trap. It was too quiet, the world around them seemed too still, and he knew very well that when nature made no sound something was very wrong. 

But nothing had happened. Nothing had happened for hours. 

So distracted by his thoughts, he’d stopped paying attention to where he’d kicked his small rock and ended up stepping on it, letting out a small sound of alarm when his foot slid off it and caused him to stumble. He managed to regain his balance and avoid slamming into the ground, but he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the hand that’d grabbed his shoulder to steady him.

“Careful, irmãozinho,” the captain laughed, but Time could see concern in the hazel eyes scanning over him. “Don’t need you falling and messing up your shoulder again.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, glaring at the innocent little rock he’d tripped over before kicking it off the path. 

“Something on your mind?” his brother asked, no doubt knowing exactly what was troubling him but trying to give him a chance to talk about it anyway. 

Time could just tell him no. He knew Warriors would go away if he did, but he felt bad lying to him and he didn’t particularly want the captain to leave either. He just also didn’t want to keep repeating how he couldn’t relax because the world around them felt weird. There was this irritating itch in the base of his spine like he’d just watched someone draw their bow but after several long hours they’d yet to release it and he still didn’t know what the target was.

It was annoying.

Before he had a chance to properly think of how to answer the captain, a shout from the back startled him from his thoughts.

“War!” the champion called. “C’mere, I need your opinion on something!!”

“Wild, can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?” Warriors responded with a huff, turning around and no doubt giving him an irritated look. 

“Wild’s trying to tell me I’m wrong about something,” Legend yelled, cupping his mouth with his hands. “You have to help me!”

“Go.” Time waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “I’m alright, and we both know Wild’ll start blowing things up if he gets bored enough.”

He didn’t miss how his brother frowned at him, but the captain didn’t argue with him and headed off towards where Wild and the veteran were grinning with a little too much excitement on their faces for his comfort. They were both incredibly intelligent individuals, but whenever they put their heads together Time found himself fearing for himself and whatever property was nearby. He’d one time caught them plotting to use an ice rod to freeze a glass in his home on the ranch instead of getting ice from the ice box to chill their water. One of those was a lot easier and a lot less destructive than the other, and Wild and Legend had stared at him with wide eyes like he was some kind of genius when he’d reminded them that ice was a thing that existed outside of magic.

They were going places for sure, with brains like they had, just maybe not together-

Fully prepared for something chaotic to happen when Warriors was added to that mix, he simply sighed when he turned around after hearing a shriek, ready to find the captain looking offended or Legend looking betrayed, but instead his eye caught a quick flash of gold before landing on Wild and the veteran just standing there with their mouths open in shock. They weren’t the only ones, everyone except for him had already turned around and was staring at the spot where the captain had been standing just a second ago, because Warriors was no longer there. The captain was nowhere in sight, there wasn’t any trace of him at all. 

He was simply gone.

Link wanted to celebrate when he finally saw Lana, though he wished he had a better reason to see her again. He felt a little weird asking for a favour when they haven’t spoken face to face for so long but if anybody understood why he needed to get back to the others, it would be Lana. He wished they could sit and chat for a bit, especially since he found out more about his vampirism, but they didn’t really have time for a lot of idle chatter.

“Zelda said you need to go back to the others, yes?” she asked with a smile that didn’t seem quite natural to him.

“Yeah, this was the only way to get them to leave me behind to recover,” he answered, looking down at her hands. She had her tome, which she was frantically looking through. “Is it ready?”

“Almost! Looking for your group is harder than it may seem.” 

That was his cue to shut up and let her work. Link imagined it couldn’t be easy to figure out where the shadow decided to go, and that was assuming that the others stayed in the same era the whole time he was recovering. They must have gone to another era at some point. He waited quietly for Lana to finish until she suddenly turned to him, holding one of her hands up while she had her tome in the other other. 

“Ready?” 

“Ready.” 

Lana’s tome glowed as she made a circular motion with her free hand, then spun on her heels. A golden outer ring appeared, with three overlapping rings in the middle. He only had a moment to watch as the rings glowed brighter, summoning one more ring that opened up to a golden portal that obscured Lana. All the gold made his eyes sting, especially since it was like the golden light that burned him in the first place, but nonetheless, he walked through. 

As soon as he stepped out of the portal, Link was first hit with a blast of cold air and the moon hanging in the sky. The time of day didn’t seem quite right to him but he didn’t need his mask when the moon was out, so he wasn’t going to question it too much. He took it off and shoved it in his bag for later, but he decided to keep his new gloves that covered his fingers on for a little extra comfort. He didn’t really need them to deal with the cold but it was still nice to have them.

There was no sign of the others. He couldn’t see them, he couldn’t hear them, and he couldn’t smell any of them either. It was just him, a lot of snow, and some trees. Maybe Lana couldn’t put him right beside his brothers, which would be annoying, but he could look for them. It’s been well over a month since he last saw them, what is a few more hours on top of it? Link picked a direction and walked, sniffing the air and watching his surroundings as he trudged through the snow.

He walked for what he guessed was about fifteen minutes or so before an unexpected scent hit his nose. It was... some sort of citrus. Oranges, maybe? It wasn’t a scent he associated with any of his brothers but it meant that somebody was with him on the mountain. It wasn’t like an orange tree could grow on a snowy mountain, so the only reason why he could smell oranges had to be because somebody had oranges. It was the best lead he had so far, so he began trailing it, going from tree to tree until he could actually see somebody in the distance.

The smell of oranges was coming from them. Perhaps it was because of his time with the chain and because of the war, but he felt the need to give the figure a nickname until he knew them better. Unfortunately for them, all Link knew of them was that they had oranges. Wind and Legend would never let him live it down if they found out he decided to call somebody Oranges, but they didn’t have to know. 

Link made out a blue scarf before he hid behind the tree again. It reminded him of his own scarf, as it was also long and blue, though he didn’t get the best look at it before he had to hide. He could also hear Oranges talking to themselves but he couldn’t pick out any familiar words. They paused, looked around, and continued walking. Link waited until he was sure they were far enough ahead that he could sneak to another tree without being noticed. He wished he could float like other vampires could as it would have been a lot quieter, but he made it to the next tree without the person turning around.

Oranges paused again, so Link slipped behind the tree for cover once again. He couldn’t tell if they knew he was following them, if they were just as lost as he was, or if it was some sort of combination of the two. He took a chance and peeked around the tree to watch them. They moved a little bit, but they were looking around, looking into the canopy of branches above them and side to side. Oranges was definitely lost. They both were.

But that didn’t mean he could trust them to help. 

When Oranges continued, so did he. The pace was slow, his target moving slowly and methodically. Link followed them until they found a clearing, a spot on the mountain that was absent of trees for him to hide behind if Oranges continued forward. Link had no choice but to stay where he was if he wanted to remain hidden but if he did, he would lose track of them. 

They turned around. 

“Who are you, and why are you following me?”

Chapter Text

Warriors wasn’t sure what had just happened to him. Everything around him was spinning so fast he couldn’t see, though at a certain point the colors and jumbled blurs of what had previously been his companions around him morphed into tall dark shapes before disappearing completely and leaving him with nothing. He probably would’ve been much more freaked out about that if he weren’t currently so distracted by the fact that he couldn’t tell which direction his body was falling in and the nausea that was welling up in his throat.

There was absolutely nothing he could do to help himself, he was so disoriented he couldn’t fully remember what he’d been doing mere seconds ago. He knew he’d been walking towards Wild and Legend, but he couldn’t recall what’d happened between that and him now trying not to be ill as he fell through time and space because it had to have been a portal that’d swallowed him up. That was the only experience this felt comparable to. Portals usually left him feeling terribly nauseous and turned around, but this was a whole other level. He felt like he’d been stuck in a bottle and then shaken around, but instead of slamming against the sides, the bottle just kept turning while he fell freely through the air.

Usually he walked through portals and stepped through them willingly. Maybe this time was so horrible because he’d fallen right into it.

Warriors suddenly felt his legs sink through something ice cold and he let out a startled scream. Though the sound was cut short because in his terror and desperation to regain control over his own body, he tilted forwards, causing his chest to slam into something slightly harder than what he was falling through and knock the air out of his lungs. Spots flooded his vision before he’d been able to regain it, and he tried not to panic as he fought to wiggle out of whatever had ensnared him. His movements were a bit sluggish since he was worried that moving too quickly would aggravate his poor stomach further, but it was quickly starting to settle now that he wasn’t flopping around through a portal like a rag doll anymore.

He let out a horrible sounding wheeze as he clawed at whatever he could reach, confused by how the ground burned the exposed tips of his fingers and moved without much force as he dug his hands into it. A thought flashed through his mind that he’d fallen through ice, it was the only thing he could think of to explain the sudden cold that had consumed him and sand moved through fingers in a somewhat similar manner to whatever this substance was, but that didn’t make much sense. If he really had fallen in water he would’ve sunk to the bottom by now and there wouldn’t be sand scattered on top of the ice. Whatever he’d fallen into he hadn’t sunk any further into it since he’d landed, and even if his hands could move through it, his legs were definitely stuck. 

Feeling horribly vulnerable and exposed, and desperately needing to escape whatever he was trapped in, Warriors started blinking hard and rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to get the spots to go away as fast as he could. The longer he spent not being able to see the harder it was to keep his breathing even.

It took him a little longer than it should’ve to realize his vision had returned, because he’d been expecting the sun to still be above his head and he hadn’t quite realized the field of white right before him was snow wasn’t his eyes playing tricks on him. 

Oh. It was snow. He’d been dropped in the snow so hard that his legs had sunk right into it and he’d fallen on his stomach over the slope of the rest of the snow bank.

“Tá de brincadeira comigo?” Warriors groaned as he used his arms to try to push himself up so he could start to wiggle his legs free. “Are you fucking kidding me.”

He shivered as he struggled, trying to work fast so his clothes didn’t end up too wet but it was hard to dig himself out with how far he’d sunk into the bank. His irritated squirming wasn’t doing much and it felt like using his hands to push the snow away from him and make a bigger hole to climb out of was barely doing anything either, and he was starting to feel overwhelmed. With nothing better to do as he fought to free himself, he looked past the snow bank at his surroundings and grumbled in discomfort when he realized he’d fallen in a little clearing in what looked to be a forest, which would explain why it’d been so difficult for him to realize he’d gotten his vision back. Dark trunks blocked him from seeing much past where he was and he could only make out that they were trunks when he squinted because otherwise they looked like a dark void with no way of seeing what might be in there. He wasn’t a tall person to begin with but being buried up to mid thigh in the snow made the trees seemingly tower even higher above him, and his heart beat faster in his chest as he was left feeling a bit like a trapped bug.

He needed to get out of the damn snow.

He needed to find the others.

This wouldn’t be the first time they’d gotten a bit separated when going through portals. Warriors had a theory that it was because the portals opened a gate between them and universal coordinates and the planet’s constant movement caused the location of the portal to shift on the actual planet, but Legend had quickly shot him down and called him an idiot over it when he’d mentioned that to the others, so the settled upon explanation was just ‘magical complications’. When Warriors next had time to kill and access to Zelda’s library and the castle telescope, he was going to spend so much time trying to prove his theory, or at the very least try to observe other possible solutions, because he might have a lot written out in his journal but he didn’t have the whole-

HIS JOURNAL.

Warriors started fighting harder to get himself out of the snow, needing more than anything to save his journal from getting damaged by the snow. The voice of reason in the back of his mind told him it was secure in the pouch on his belt and therefore the pages wouldn’t get wet, but the possibility of it being damaged had entered his mind and he wouldn’t be able to calm himself until he’d ‘saved it’. He had everything in that journal: all his notes on things he learned as he traveled through time, poorly done sketches of interesting things he’d never seen before, strategies and notes on his companions’ strengths and weaknesses which he’d willingly shared with them when they asked for tips on how to improve, letters to and from his family back home, thoughts he’d wanted to remember to dwell on when he had more time to do so, maps of the stars and how they were different across eras…

That book was an extension of his brain and it was as important to him as his own physical form. 

He let out a triumphant cry when he felt his legs start to move, and it didn't take much longer for him to be able to crawl out of the snow and scramble to his feet. Patting himself down and trying not to shake too hard in the cold, he was relieved to discover his clothing wasn’t too wet. He must’ve been trapped for a much shorter period of time than he’d thought, in his panic it’d felt like forever but he wouldn’t be shocked to discover it’d only been a minute or two.

Checking for his own peace of mind that his journal was unharmed, he tucked his scarf tighter around himself and looked again at the trees to try to determine what direction he should go in. They were too tall for him to see anything over and the clouds must’ve been covering the stars and moon because the sky looked completely dark, giving him no real hint of where he could be or what direction he should go in, so he decided to just start walking because he didn’t feel safe staying put. 

He knew better than to call out for his friends, he didn’t know what else might be in these woods with him, but he was annoyed and cold and miserable, and so he found himself grumbling about his situation under his breath. Why couldn’t they have stayed on the nice sunny path looking for monsters? Why had he been dropped in the snow? He hated the snow, sure it was pretty from afar but it was horribly cold and Warriors really wasn’t a fan of that. The others liked to tease him for getting cold so quickly, but it simply wasn’t his fault he wasn’t used to it. The small village where he’d grown up was warm and sunny, he’d never even seen snow until he was sixteen years old and stuck in the Castletown barracks after joining the army. He hadn’t been warned just how cold it could get.

“Isso é tao estúpido,” he sighed, watching for any movement as he walked through the trees. 

Whining about his situation was useless, it wasn’t going to bring the sun closer and melt the snow, but it made him feel a little better even if no one was around to listen to it and so he continued to complain as he walked on, searching for his friends and praying they’d show up soon.

He kept his voice down, barely whispering to himself as he struggled through the snow so that he’d still be able to hear over his own words, but he found himself falling completely silent when he sensed something behind him. If it were one of his friends, they’d call out to him, knowing he didn’t have eyes on the back of his head, but whatever it was didn’t make a sound. Warriors knew he could be overly paranoid but this time he was sure he wasn’t overreacting because as he kept walking, the thing behind him continued to follow silently, close enough that he was sure it was able to see him. 

His friends wouldn’t pull a prank on him like this, but a monster would’ve attacked by now.

Unsure of what else to do, he kept walking, growing increasingly more unsettled as his stalker stuck by him. Spotting a break in the trees didn’t bring him as much peace as he would’ve liked, but he headed towards it and tried not to groan when mountains became visible. He wouldn’t be getting away from the cold any time soon, but maybe his stalker would stay in the forest. At least the open field and increased ability to see would make him feel a bit safer than being stuck where things could hide from him in the cover of the shadows.

Confused, annoyed, and more freaked out than he wanted to admit to himself, Warriors walked exactly thirty more steps, out of the trees and into the open snow, before he whipped around and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring into the woods.

“Who are you, and why are you following me?”

Shit, they knew he was there. Oh well. There was no point in hiding when he was already found out. Link slowly walked out from behind the tree with his hands up in the air. He didn’t know Oranges and he still didn’t know enough about them even after following them, but he didn’t want to scare away a potential ally by drawing his sword. If Oranges attacked, Link was sure he could draw his sword in time to defend himself. At the absolute worst, he could use his powers, but he preferred to keep that a secret if he could.

“My name is Link,” he started, as he tried to find a good enough excuse for following Oranges around. He didn’t really have a reason that didn’t sound suspicious. “And.... you just happened to the only other person I saw?”

Now that Link was closer and Oranges was in the moonlight, he could see that Oranges looked masculine and he was also wearing a green tunic with a low neckline that happened to be trimmed with gold. It was remarkably similar to his own tunic. He could also seem some blue under his bracers, though Oranges’ fingers were tucked into that blue scarf he noticed before. They didn’t have the same face – Oranges had scars on his face that he didn’t have and his hair didn’t look to be the same shade of blonde, though his eyebrows were suspiciously dark so maybe his hair wasn’t blonde to begin with – but they were wearing pretty similar clothing.

“L- What??” Oranges blinked at him.

“My name is Link,” he repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?” Maybe he was in one of those in-between eras but one where one of their stories was known. Maybe it was even his story, if the scarf was of any indication, but something didn’t seem quite right about that. Maybe the scarf was something that could become a tradition, but the tunic too? The blue gloves under the bracer? It was a bit much for tradition. 

Oranges narrowed his eyes in confusion and slowly answered, “No, not an issue. I’m looking for my friends, have you seen anyone around here?”

“Only you, but I’m looking for somebody named Lana. If you wear that scarf, maybe the name is familiar? At any rate, we both have a goal, so maybe we can help each other out.” Link wasn’t sure he could trust Oranges but they might as well team up. There was no point in going their separate ways when they were both looking for people.

Oranges gave him a weird look and clutched his scarf around himself tighter. “You know Lana?”

The gears in Link’s head were turning. He definitely knew Lana, and that was on top of their very similar clothing. He also had a weird reaction to his name. He felt like he had pieces to a game but he couldn’t figure out what game they belonged to. If he wanted more clues though, he would have to continue to answer questions so he could ask questions himself. 

“She’s the whole reason I’m here. I don’t think she meant to send me here though, so I want to find her and we can try again. Maybe she can help you find your friends,” he answered with an awkward smile. He hoped Lana could get it right the second time. He wasn't exactly mad that this first attempt didn’t seem to take him to his brothers like he wanted, but he was kind of annoyed. If he couldn’t find Lana in time, then he would need to find some blood and if Oranges did agree to work together, then he would have to leave him behind to find some. He didn’t want Oranges to know about his vampirism. 

“Yeah…” Oranges said slowly, looking him up and down as if he were trying to figure him out. Or maybe he was looking for weapons. “I’m looking for eight of them, it’s a large group. I’m assuming they’re close because we usually travel together so it doesn’t make much sense for me to be here without them.”

He was looking for a group of eight. Suddenly, everything clicked. 

He first thought that Oranges may have come after him, that Oranges’ clothing was based on his own, but if he was looking for his own group of eight, then he was probably looking at somebody who held the same title as him but in a completely different timeline. Link and his brothers were already aware that there were different timelines because of Time, so who was to say there weren’t more? Maybe infinitely more?

Link shook his head. He was not going to contemplate that right now. He had to focus on Oranges and he had to focus on getting to Lana so he they could both reunite with their brothers. Focus on the present. He was going too far ahead of himself as it was! Link hadn’t even confirmed with Oranges that he was also the Hero of Warriors. 

“Is your name Link? Is the rest of your group also named Link? Do you and the rest of your group have to use weird nicknames like… say, Time and Legend? Names based on Hero titles made the most amount of sense, no?” Link asked with a smirk.

Oranges’ face twitched as he tried to keep his expression controlled, but he failed to maintain his look of composure and hide the fact that what Link had just said to him had more than startled him. The man looked a bit like he’d seen a ghost, and he spent several long seconds before he responded to the question with one of his own.

“Who are you and how do you know that?” 

“I’m Link, the Hero of Warriors. You’re also Link, the Hero of Warriors, no? Our clothing is strangely similar, we both know Lana, and I also want to reunite with a group of eight people who sometimes make me want to scream but I still love them. Let me show you something,” he said as he lowered his arms. The gloves made it a little harder to remove the bracer on his left arm but he managed it. Next, he took his glove off by sticking a little bit of it in his mouth and pulling his arm out of it, then he had to awkwardly grab it with his right hand, which was still holding the bracer. 

He held his arm up and slowly turned it to show Oranges all of the burn scars he got from Volga. He even turned his hand so that the back of it faced Oranges, but the divine mark on it was hard to see even with good lighting, so he didn’t expect him to see it. “I got all of these scars because I tried to protect Impa from Volga. The Triforce of Courage activated, but not in time for me to walk away unscathed. I still got burned, but Impa was fine. It could have been a lot worse. Does that sound familiar?” 

Oranges stared at him with wide eyes, shifting his arms a bit where they were holding his scarf almost as if to protect his own left arm. He seemed frozen for a moment as his eyes flicked back and forth between Link’s face and the scar on his arm before he let out a strange sounding laugh, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Nao acredito, isso é ridículo,” he grumbled under his breath before letting his hand fall back to his side. “Yeah. That sounds familiar. They call me the Hero of Warriors too.”

Link titled his head slightly. When he first heard Oranges say something he couldn’t understand, he thought it had something to do with the fact that he was far away and couldn’t hear him clearly, but no, it was a whole different language. 

“I guess that’s one difference between us, only one of those words sounded familiar,” he mumbled as he shook his head. “What about you? Do you have something you can share that only I would know?”

“Uh… I don’t- What can I say that isn’t public knowledge?” Oranges let out a sigh but he at least looked a little less on edge. “Proxi…? She was a big help to me during the war, she helped me communicate because when I came to Castletown after joining the army, I struggled to understand their language so she translated for me until I felt confident enough to speak on my own. Also, I met the spirit of the master sword, I think she was…? Her name wa- Her name is Fi? Any of that familiar to you?”

Link nodded. “Proxi help me a lot too, just not in the same way,” he said quietly with a fond smile. Proxi didn’t have to translate for him the same way Oranges would have needed her to, but he struggled to speak clearly after his sudden promotion. He was so afraid of fucking up that he had a hard time saying anything at all. “And, yes! Fi! It was just me and Proxi who went to Skyloft, and Fi helped us out when we found her. We were on the surface when…” 

He stopped. He wasn’t sure he could say the word 'traitor' without losing his cool. He was trying to keep Oranges on his side and if he did lose cool, he might not be able to hide his vampirism. He distracted himself by putting his glove and bracer back on, since his arm was actually starting to get a little cold and he already proved his point. 

“So… truce? I’m sure if we work together, we can find Lana and get back to our brothers. We have more important things to do than be stuck on a snowy mountain.” 

“Truce,” Oranges agreed, shivering as he held out a hand for Link to shake. “I fucking hate the snow.”

Link couldn't help but laugh as he took Oranges’ hand.

Chapter Text

Warriors pulled his scarf tighter around himself, tucking his chin under where he’d bunched up some of the fabric near his face so he could protect as much of his skin as possible from the biting cold. It was bad enough he’d ended up separated from the others and dumped on a mountain in the snow, he didn’t need to end up getting frostbite too. The tips of his ears burned and his toes felt miserably frozen in his boots but there wasn’t much he could do to protect them, other than maybe clamp his hands around the sides of his head but that’d make it difficult to hear and he didn’t want to hinder that. He could barely see, it was so dark out, he didn’t want to make himself even more vulnerable.

He had taken out both sets of his earrings, the metal starting to burn in his ears and make him a little too conscious of its presence in his flesh, so he’d stuffed them in one of the pouches on his belt as he’d followed behind… the other Hero of Warriors. 

Gods, this was so weird. He still wasn’t sure what to think about it. It was clear the other man wasn’t lying, he knew way too much for him to be lying and once they’d agreed to a truce and to help each other off the mountain he’d seemed completely disinterested in Warriors. If he’d wanted to hurt him or something he probably would’ve done it by now, and he’d have no motivation that Warriors could imagine to try to impersonate him other than to cause harm so he was content to believe this other Link was telling the truth. But that really didn’t make it any less strange. He wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of alternate timelines, but this didn’t feel like him from some other reality. It was hard to see in the light just from the moon, but this man was visibly paler than he was, and his hair looked like it was naturally blond unlike Warriors’s own hair that he had to keep dyeing to maintain that color and aggressively straighten every morning to keep up his appearance. Facially they didn’t look anything alike either. This was clearly a completely different person, who was just also the Hero of Warriors…?

His head hurt.

“What should I call you?” He decided to break the silence after a while, grimacing when his foot sank a little too quickly into the snow and caused his knee to bend too far backwards to be comfortable. “Since we’ll be working together until we can get off this godsforsaken mountain.”

The other Link slowed his pace. “Well, the others call me Warriors, so that might not help at all. Your group must call you Warriors too, right?” 

“They do,” he sighed, not quite sure what else he was expecting to hear, “but they also call me War as a nickname of sorts.”

“War is better than the name I had for you,” the other Link said as he stopped and turned his head towards Warriors. “I’ve been mentally calling you Oranges this whole time.” 

He burst out laughing, brows furrowing in slight confusion. “How’d you know I like oranges? I don’t think I even have any on me, the others- My friends like to tease me for eating them all the time. You a fan too?”

“You smell like oranges,” he stated simply. “I guess you eat them that much that the smell sticks around even when you don’t have any. They aren’t my favourite, but they’re alright.” 

Warriors blinked in shock, and discreetly tried to sniff at his scarf to see if he could pick up the familiar scent of his comfort fruit. Maybe he was just so used to being around it that his brain couldn’t register the faint smell anymore?

“Huh…” He trailed off, wishing he could stop shivering but his bones felt like they were frozen and he was so cold it was difficult to think about too many things at once. 

He had no idea how the other man looked so unbothered by the temperature. His face was a little red but he wasn’t shaking like Warriors was and, yes, he knew he wasn’t as used to colder temperatures like some people were, having grown up in the southern most part of the kingdom, but for fuck’s sake it was literally freezing out and this guy was just standing there. 

He needed to get back on track and probably mentally stop calling him the ‘other guy’.

“I guess I’ll just call you Warriors if that’s alright for you.” It felt weird to use what had come to feel like his name for someone else, but this whole situation felt weird so he was really just going to have to get used to it. “And I guess you can call me War.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Warriors said, but he didn’t take his eyes off of War. He glanced up and down like he was studying him. “Do you need another layer? I can spare my scarf if you need it.” 

He was shocked at the offer, he wasn’t used to kindness from strangers, and while normally he might’ve been more suspicious or refused and lied that he was fine, he was so horribly uncomfortable and grateful for any chance of warmth.

“Are you not cold…?” War made himself ask first to check, not wanting to be greedy.

Warriors shook his head as he reached under his cloak. It didn’t take him long before he started pulling it off of himself, then offered it to War. “I don’t get cold too easily. You, on the other hand, look kind of rough.” 

If he were less focused on trying to suppress his violent shivering maybe he would’ve felt offended.

“Thank you,” he nodded, hoping he sounded as genuine as he meant to as he gratefully took the scarf (pretty much identical to his own) and pulled it around himself. It was hard to keep his voice steady with how he was shaking. 

Why the fuck couldn’t he have been dumped off at the beach. Or literally anywhere else?

Warriors watched War pull the scarf around himself, then he looked ahead. If War was struggling in the cold, then they really had to get off the mountain for his sake. Warriors was strangely fine. Nobody told him that vampires were resistant to the cold but he couldn’t think of any other reason why he wasn’t a shivering mess like War was. He had gloves that covered his fingers and an extra cloak, but he had a feeling that he could take both off and still not be as bad off. 

He decided to pick up the pace again. They had to find a way down before War froze to death on him. Well, maybe that was a bit of exaggeration on his part but he didn’t want to stay around and find out either. 

The two of them stayed silent after War took his scarf but Warriors didn’t mind it too much. He was trying to focus on the gradual but downward slope ahead of them, making sure there wasn’t anything dangerous ahead of them or anything dangerous under their feet. The last thing they needed was to be attacked while they were in an environment that limited their mobility. Warriors was sure that War was a capable fighter but he wasn’t going to fight at his best when the snow was so deep. 

There was a rustle in the trees around him. Warriors stopped and scanned the environment. There was a shadow in front of them. A deer, maybe? It wasn’t in the moonlight but further back within the tree. 

“Do you see that?” 

War squinted at the shadow, or at least he thought that’s what he was doing before it became a bit obvious he was just staring at their surroundings in general, searching for something.

“I heard it,” War mumbled, still trying to find it.

“But you don’t see it?” he asked as he pointed at it. He knew it was in the shadows but it couldn’t have been that hard to see. A second later, it moved, stepping into the moonlight to sniff at one of the trees. It was just a deer, thankfully. It was cute actually, and he was kind of excited that he could get so close to it without it running away or running aggressively towards him. Maybe he could add deer to the very short list of animals that didn’t hate his guts.

“Oh!! It’s a deer!” War said, following his finger with his eyes to where it was.

“Oh, there’s another one way back there. Do you see it?” Warriors asked, pointing at the smaller one. This one was further back, hiding within the shadows. It was smaller than the one sniffing at the tree in the moonlight, so maybe they were looking at a mother and its fawn. “I think it’s a mother and a baby! I guess this mountain isn’t too bad after all.”

“I don’t…” War grumbled, tilting his head and ducking a bit to try to see what he was talking about. “I just see the one.”

“It’s in the shadow,” he added, like it might have been helpful but Warriors was beginning to wonder if it was. He quickly ran his tongue over his teeth, making sure he didn’t have his fangs out, but he didn’t feel any of his fangs. He wasn’t using his vampire powers to see it. Sure, the second one was kind of hard to see but somebody with average vision should be able make it out. “Your eyesight isn’t the best, is it?”

War looked like he was going to argue with him, he opened his mouth a few times and sputtered before defensively getting out, “It’s dark outside. It’s the middle of the night, it’s hard to see.”

Warriors supposed that could be true. Maybe it was just really hard for him to see in the dark. He could see the deer in the moonlight, so perhaps he really did just need more light. He took a deep breath. 

“We should try to find some shelter and continue down the mountain when there’s more light. Hopefully, the sun will make it a little warmer too,” he added. War could argue about his eyesight or lack thereof, but he couldn’t argue about being cold. The sun would be worse for Warriors, but that was hardly new. He was used to travelling in the sun, even though he was tired and he had to take a lot more precautions against the sun than anyone else had to. He could manage it and it seemed like it was the better option for War. 

Warriors didn’t wait for an answer. He moved around the deer as he didn’t want to startle the, and scanned the landscape for somewhere to hide in for a while. He moved on when there wasn’t anything obvious to him. He didn’t stop to wait for War or even look back to see if he was keeping up. He just trusted that the other man could just follow behind in the path he made through the snow. After ten minutes of searching, he considered maybe going back up the mountain for a better vantage point, and maybe use his powers if he really couldn’t see anything. 

But then he found it, a small cave. He ran over and quickly looked inside. Warriors could see the back, which was both a good sign and a bad sign. They would be alone in the cave, which was good, but it wasn’t as deep as he would like. They would be out of the snow but deeper would have been further away from the snow. Oh well, it was the best they had. Warriors turned around and quickly spotted War. He lagged behind a little bit but thankfully, he managed to keep up. He gestured at the cave and ducked inside, since the mouth of the cave was just a little shorter than he was but the ceiling was higher on the inside. 

“If we’re going to be working together, I’d like it if you didn’t leave me behind,” he said firmly but not unkindly as he walked past Warriors and pressed his back against the wall of the cave before sliding down to sit. War kept the scarves wrapped around himself tightly, only loosening them for a brief moment so he could bring his legs up to his chest and wrap those in the fabric too. His lips looked a little blue but hopefully he’d warm up soon now that they had some kind of shelter.

Warriors looked out at the mouth of the cave one more time and once he was satisfied that there wasn’t anything weird out there, he joined War at the far wall, settling his sheathed sword down against the wall, removed his bag, and then sat down. Without saying anything in response to War, he opened it up and dug inside, pulling out his bedroll from the bottom and an extra blanket that he promptly threw at the other hero. He didn’t have anything else that could provide warmth, unless one could count his fingerless gloves, but to his shock, he had far more food than he expected. Warriors didn’t remember packing any of the dried fruits, nuts, and jerky that he found and he knew the vampires didn’t give him any. 

He pulled out a piece of jerky for himself. “I don’t know if you have any food but it looks like Zelda and Impa decided to stuff my bag. You’re welcomed to it if I'm not awake,” he mumbled as he closed his bag and shoved the jerky in his mouth. He ate it as he set up his bedroll and slipped inside. His blanket would have made him comfortable, especially since he still had to wear all of his layers to be warm enough, but he figured War needed it more. 

“Just as a warning, my friends say I don’t wake up well,” he mumbled once he finished eating the jerky. 

War gave him a hum of acknowledgment. He really hadn’t done much besides mumble out a shocked ‘thanks’ when the blanket had been thrown at him, but at least his shivering had stopped and he looked a little less like he was about to freeze to death.

Warriors spared one more glance in War’s direction before he shoved the dagger necklace into his mouth. He didn’t know when he would get to taste blood again but the necklace was a nice distraction for now. Satisfied that War wasn’t going to die if he fell asleep, he closed his eyes and let himself drift to sleep. 

War grumbled as he tried to curl up tighter while also figuring out how he could blindly dig into the pouch on his belt where his emergency snacks were. He probably should’ve attempted to eat something earlier but he was so disoriented with being dropped in the middle of the night when it’d just been the afternoon for him and then he’d been too cold to want to expose his fingers to the frosty air. And he was paying the price for going so long without food because he was already feeling dizzy and a bit nauseous.

He really wanted to find the others, it was rare someone got lost for this long after they went through a portal and he couldn’t imagine how much they were stressed out over having him just disappear like he had. The stupid little voice in the back of his head that hated him tried to convince him maybe the chain could finally know peace without him there always running his mouth, but he’d spent enough time with his friends to be able to firmly push that aside because he knew they loved him. He didn’t understand why, but he knew they’d be upset if something happened to him and he felt guilty about that.

Letting out a tired sigh, he successfully managed to grab a handful of cashews and bring them up to his mouth without having to bring his whole hand out of the bunch of fabrics wrapped around him. Belatedly he froze, already having eaten a few before a worried thought crossed his mind about Warriors having a nut allergy. He knew Wind couldn’t have peanuts without having a horrible life threatening reaction to them, but the first time he’d really been exposed to an allergy like that was Tune in the war so until he’d started hanging around Wind again he’d sort of forgotten that was a possibility. And since Wind could have cashews with no problem it’d completely escaped his mind that apparently, according to the little sailor, there were people who were allergic to them.

He’d have to ask Warriors in the morning to double check. He’d hate to kill the guy on accident, he’d feel horrible about it for the rest of his life.

War didn’t remember falling asleep, it almost felt like he hadn’t gone to bed at all. It’d been so hard for him to get any kind of comfortable, his lower back and hips had decided to start aching and make it impossible for him to sit or lay down without being in pain so he’d ended up just curling into a ball on the ground anyway and at some point he must’ve passed out because the front of the cave was now a lot lighter than before. 

Which meant that now it was time to start moving and get away from this horrible mountain.

He didn’t want to get up. It’d mean poking his legs out of the scarves and blanket covering him and he finally didn’t feel like his insides had frozen, but he forced himself to push himself to his feet anyway, letting out a small groan when his back popped. War was going to blame sleeping on a cave floor for that one, and not the fact that getting beat up by monsters frequently was probably just bad for one’s joints.

Shooting a glance over at his new companion, he found the guy still fast asleep with some kind of necklace in his mouth. War hadn’t even noticed he was wearing one, and seeing the chain made him instinctively reach up around his own neck to feel if the one he wore was still there. The metal had warmed up from resting against his skin and he no longer felt it freezing him, but his mother’s ring was still, in fact, around his neck and he let out a sigh of relief.

“Warriors?” He called, wincing at how weird it felt to say his own name to call someone else. “We should head out now. Make the best use of the daylight, and all that.”

Warriors didn’t move or react at all .

“Link?” He tried, stepping closer to him and speaking a little louder. War was already starting to feel cold now that he’d gotten up and he really wanted to start moving, but Warriors must not have been joking when he said he slept deeply. “It’s morning now.”

Still no reaction.

War didn’t like invading people’s personal space, he didn’t like when people invaded his personal space. He didn’t like being touched by strangers, or anyone without warning, and he didn’t like doing to others what he didn’t like have being done to him, but he really did not want to spend all day in this cave and he needed Warriors to wake up. So, after shouting his name a couple more times, he gently reached out with his foot and nudged the sleeping man’s ankle.

Warriors let out a threatening hiss, akin to the sound geese made when somebody walked too close to their nest, and turned away from in his bedroll aggressively He pulled his legs up and settled quickly, but not without hissing under his breath one more time. 

War sighed and backed up. That was a fair reaction, he wouldn’t want to get up either. It’d been a good long minute since someone had hissed at him, though it didn’t really catch him off guard. He’d been growled at before by soldiers he tried to wake, wanting to make sure they hadn’t passed in their sleep, he’d been barked at by some just wanting to scare him off and get some extra rest. Legend had accidentally kicked him last week when he tried to wake the kid up, and he used to have to physically drag Mask off his cot to get his brother awake.

It would probably be for the best to just let Warriors wake in his own time. So War sat back down and tried to get comfortable for however long he’d have to wait.

Chapter Text

When Warriors woke up, he could see light spilling into their cave. He groaned, spat the necklace out of his mouth and sat up. He swore to himself when he saw that War was already awake, tucked at the back of the cave with the blanket and both scarves. Shit, he must have wasted a bunch of time sleeping when War was awake and ready to go. First, he took his mask out and laid it on the ground beside him, then he quickly packed away his bedroll and stuffed it into the bottom of his bag. 

He came upon all the extra snacks in his bag again. Like he did before he fell asleep, he took a piece of jerky for himself, then turned to War. “Have you eaten?”

“Had a few cashews,” he shrugged before looking at him with a frown. “You don’t have an issue with them, do you?”

“No,” he answered, unsure if War was asking if he was allergic to them or if he had some personal vendetta against them. Neither one of those was true, but he was worried that all War ate were cashews. He doubted that they were close enough for him to try to get War to eat more without him getting annoyed or frustrated though. If they had similar experiences during the war, then he also probably dealt with traitors and assassination attempts, and as far as Warriors knew, War was a hylian. Those attempts could actually kill him. He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell the other Link that he understood what it was like to be in his shoes, so he held his tongue. 

The last thing he needed to pack was his blanket, but that could wait until the absolute last moment. Instead, he focused on putting his mask on. 

“I have really sensitive skin. If I don’t completely cover up, my skin will be peeling in a couple of hours,” he explained.

War looked at him in horror. “From the sun?”

“Yeah, if I spend too much time in the sun, my skin peels and I start looking like one of Wild’s red bokoblins. One time, I got alarming big blisters that not even Hyrule’s magic could heal. All from the sun.” 

The other man just blinked at him, mouth opening slightly. “That’s awful . I’m not sure I’ve ever been sunburnt before, but Ma- my brother has.”

“Really? Not even as a kid?” He understood that War wasn’t a vampire like he was but he had a hard time believing that War never got a sunburn, not even a small one. He had sunburns when he was a kid and before he was cursed, he still had to spread lotion all over his face to prevent burns. He was definitely paler than War was though, maybe that’s what made all the difference. 

“No, not even then,” War shook his head. “I’ve always just tanned.”

That was unfair, but he didn’t say that out loud. He burned but he wasn’t freezing like War was, so they were kind of even in a weird way. He retrieved his blanket, stuffed it into his bag, and secured it close. 

“I’ve wasted enough time. We should get going.” 

They continued down the mountain again. It was a little warmer now with the sun out, which was hopefully better for War, but Warriors encountered a new problem. The snow was reflecting the light from the sun right into his eyes, so while the mask protected his face, his eyes stung. He had a hard time looking at the snow, which unfortunately, was everywhere. He had no doubt that it was bright for War but it was way too bright for him. He tried to pull the hood of his cloak forward to shield his eyes but it didn’t help much when the light didn’t come from above. 

“For fuck’s sake,” he grumbled under his breath. 

“Are you alright?” War asked, adjusting his scarf around himself with a shiver.

“The sun is too bright. It hurts my eyes,” he answered as he squinted behind his mask. He had to find something to focus on that didn’t hurt his eyes as much… which would be War. He could just watch War and try to ignore the damn snow. “I’m going behind you, alright?” 

The other man looked a little uncomfortable at the idea, but he nodded anyway. “Yeah, I’ll lead then.”

Warriors slowed down and stepped behind War. It definitely helped but he could feel some tension that wasn’t there just a minute ago. He was usually alright with silence but with a stranger who he could tell didn’t exactly trust him, it was unbearable. 

“So… back in the cave, you mentioned a brother. What is he like?” he asked. Briefly, he wondered if he was talking about a small kid that was tied to his hip in the war, but he decided to leave it up to War. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset the man he was currently stuck with. 

“He’s, um…” War started, grabbing the hem of his scarf and anxiously rubbing his fingers over the embroidery. “He was a sweet kid, a bit angry and impulsive and a lot of people only saw that. The world put a lot of pressure on his shoulders and he went through a lot, but he’s one of the kindest men I know. He’s not so little anymore, he’s fuckin’ taller than me which is just… absolutely fucked up, but he’ll always be my baby brother, I guess. I’m not related to him by blood, but I’m technically his legal guardian still- In my era anyways.”

“Mask, right? It really is unfair that he got so tall,” Warriors said as he rolled his eyes. He wasn’t even a bit taller, he really had to go and show off. “I really wished he didn’t get dragged into it though. That wasn’t a place for children.” 

“Yeah, Mask,” War nodded. “Forgot you might’ve known him too. I’m grateful every day that I had him, and that I get to know him still, but gods, I wish he’d never had to see the things he had. He deserves better.”

Warriors bit the inside of his cheeks. In his era, Mask not only had to deal with a war, but he also had to deal with Warriors’ vampirism. Both Mask and Tune were there when he had to get hauled away from the castle because he finally succumbed to a curse he didn’t know he had. They dealt with a bloodthirsty vampire and a war. Time didn’t seem to hold it against him but he wished that Mask didn’t see him. He wished he wasn’t a vampire at all. 

“Were you also really young when the war started? I mean, the others were younger when they had to start their adventures but I was barely an adult when the war started. I wasn’t ready for everything that a war entails and I definitely wasn’t ready for… her.”

War froze in his tracks at those last few words, standing completely still for a moment. 

“Sorry, I should have known that was a sensitive topic…” 

“I was drafted at fifteen, war started a few months before I turned eighteen,” War sniffed, completely ignoring what he’d just said as he wrapped his arms impossibly tighter around himself and resumed walking. He wasn’t crying, but he sounded a bit rattled even though he was clearly trying to seem unaffected. “Didn’t end until a few weeks before I turned twenty one. What about you?”

“Fifteen…” Warriors paused, giving War some room before he decided to trail behind him again. He couldn’t help but to feel that he completely fucked up any chance of gaining War’s trust. “I signed up when I was eighteen because I didn’t know where else to go. The war ended when I was about twenty. It’s been about three years since.”

“You signed up?” The other man turned his head to raise an eyebrow at him curiously. 

Warriors nodded, though he wasn’t sure why that was so surprising to War. It sounded like War didn’t have a choice but was it really so odd for somebody to turn up to a job that basically took anybody who showed up?  “Yeah, some of the larger towns have recruiting stations. I just went to one of those and I got sent to the barracks near Castletown for training. I thought drafts only happened in wartime…” 

“Our king made several… interesting decisions in the years leading up to his death,” War grumbled. “There was a lot of tension, especially in the south, because he encroached on a lot of land that didn’t belong to him, and as you can imagine, the other kingdoms weren’t too thrilled. There were soldiers coming through my village constantly, trying to convince us to join them as if my village wasn’t stolen by-” He cut himself off with an irritated sigh. “That was before I was born, but the tension remained for a long time and the king was preparing for an all out war even before Ganon and everyone fighting for him stepped into the picture. There were a few breakout battles here and there, that’s how I lost my father, but I guess the one good thing about Hyrule being so ready to go to war with someone was that our soldiers were well trained when war did break out.”

Even though he’d tried to end his rant on a positive note, War still looked incredibly pissed off. It seemed like he had much more to say but had intentionally cut himself short. Warriors wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or a bad sign for their strange relationship though. Was it a good thing that he felt like he could say all of that or a bad sign that he couldn’t say more? 

“We were caught off guard, we had to do a draft in the middle of the war, and of course, a lot of those people didn't make it because we didn’t have enough time to train them…” Warriors trailed off, still trying to process everything War told him. He didn’t like the idea of a draft that wasn’t in the middle of a war, but he couldn't help but to wonder how many lives could have been saved if his army was as prepared as War’s army was. “I’m not even sure I would have made it if it wasn’t for the Triforce.” 

“Gods, I most certainly wouldn’t have,” the other man huffed. “Besides Volga nearly burning my ass to a crisp, it’s saved my life so many other times. I wasn’t even meant to be all that involved in combat. They initially trained me as a field medic until they needed more men and I guess I didn’t suck too bad with a sword so they decided to throw me into more combat training. But going up against the shit the war threw at me? I don’t think any normal man could’ve taken that on without magical aid.” 

“Magic, and somebody who isn’t afraid to tell you that you’re being an idiot helps a lot too,” he said with a smile, though War wouldn’t see it behind his mask. “Mask was good at that. He didn’t have a filter.” 

Suddenly, he paused. Something was odd. He couldn’t put a finger on what bothered him but something made anxiety bubble in his chest. 

“Something doesn’t feel right.” 

“What do you-” War turned to frown at him but he didn’t get to finish his sentence. A figure resembling some sort of humanoid icicle burst from the snow. It looked almost skeletal, although it lacked a proper ribcage. Its head was also far too narrow and triangular to be a person’s skull. Warriors barely had a moment to understand what he was looking at before whatever it was summoned a very large and very sharp spear made of ice, seemingly from the air itself. He looked behind him and found that there wasn’t just one - there were four.

“What is that??” War gasped, dropping the second scarf from around his shoulders so he could draw his sword. His own scarf was incredibly important to him so he felt a bit bad about leaving Warriors’ in the snow, but he didn’t have time to secure it so it wouldn’t hinder his movement. Maybe he should’ve been smarter about that earlier, but it was too late now. He’d been aware there might have been monsters the second he ended up on the mountain, but he’d never seen anything quite like these things before and he certainly hadn’t been expecting them. They’d come straight out of the ground without warning, rising up taller and taller until they towered over him.

Warriors drew his own sword. “I’ve never seen these before,” he answered. “Maybe they’re like stalfos?”

Humming in agreement, he tightened his grip on his sword and set his focus on the monster closest to him. He was a little pissed he didn’t have his fire rod with him, it would’ve been much better for getting rid of walking icicles than smacking them with a sword, but he didn’t have much of a choice. The majority of his belongings were with his pack which the others had because he hadn’t anticipated being separated from them, or being without them for this long. 

War lunged forward towards the nearest icicle man before it could come at him , swinging his sword at its middle in hopes it would come apart as easily as a stalfos, but he was unprepared for how quickly they could move. Something hard smacked into his side and he didn’t realize it was the side of the creature’s ice spear until he was already landing flat on his ass in the snow.

“I’m assuming these things aren’t infected?” he grumbled, scrambling to his feet to avoid the spear that was suddenly thrown at his head. He could worry about how bruised his ribs were and how cold he was later. “They’re entirely made of ice, looks like, so I don’t think they have blood?”

“Looks like one of those monsters that are annoying regardless of whether or not they’re infected,” Warriors hissed as he swung his sword at one of them, striking it in the middle, but he swore out loud when it didn’t immediately die. He barely managed to roll out of the way as a spear sailed over his head and landed in the snow behind him. “Well, fuck,” he said as he stood up.  

“Damn spears are getting annoying,” War sighed, making another attempt to smack his sword into the icicle man’s middle. 

While he initially failed to hit it, he did make contact with its spear and the ice shattered, spraying shards everywhere and leaving the thing open for him to whack a few times. On the third strike he was scared for a moment that his sword had gotten trapped in the ice, but with some force he was able to quickly wrench it free and slam it into the creature a fourth time. He let out a triumphant shout when the icicle man exploded.

“We just have to brute force it, huh?” Warriors responded as he charged towards the icicle man he attacked earlier but he was forced to stop and raise his shield to block its attack. Part of the spear shattered against his shield, so Warriors lowered it quickly and struck it in the same spot he did before until it also shattered. 

“Gods,” War huffed, “I guess so.”

The stupid icicle men were a bit annoying and there were still two more. Every time they lunged towards him or a spear went flying at his face he felt a bit of a chill, and he was getting annoyed with the amount of ducking he had to do to keep his head on his shoulders. They weren’t too hard to hack apart, but War found it difficult to get to the other ones when they kept throwing things at him. One of the icicle men raised its spear but before it could throw it, Warriors turned quickly and attacked it from behind. It paused, unable to turn around to attack Warriors, giving the other hero the opportunity to destroy it. 

“Think you can get behind the last one if I distract it?” 

“Yeah,” he nodded, slowly creeping up behind the creature while its attention remained on Warriors, who approached it with his sword raised. 

It was hard to see what the other man was doing, he was somewhat blocked by the icicle creature and War wasn’t paying much attention to him, more focused on his target. But whatever Warriors was doing was working because the monster seemingly forgot he existed, allowing him to successfully sneak behind it and slam his sword into its ice ‘spine’ enough times to shatter it in seconds. Warriors shot him a thumbs up and moved his hand to sheath his sword when he suddenly paused, looking beyond War. 

“War - fuck!” he shouted suddenly, running towards him. 

He froze. He wasn’t sure what else to do when another person came running at him so fast. He didn’t used to react so horribly, monsters coming at him was nothing new and he never found himself standing around like an idiot when they came at him, but for some reason he just found himself staring at Warriors when the other man called out. He’d always prided himself in his fast reflexes, his inability to be shaken or scared while on the battlefield had saved his life countless times, but monsters were predictable in a way that people were not. He knew monsters would mindlessly rip him to shreds, but hylians could be far more cruel.

Warriors came running at him and his stupid ass brain’s instinct was to scream at him that his new friend was going to hurt him.

The other hero was terrifyingly fast, or maybe War’s sense of time was just fucked up as he stood there, but Warriors had crossed over to him in no time and shoved him to the ground. He let out a startled sound as he fell, twisting awkwardly as he went down to avoid landing flat on his back. Arms raised to protect his face, he waited for some sort of hit to come, but when it didn’t and he heard the other man run past him, he frowned in confusion.

Behind him Warriors gasped, then swore again. War flipped himself around as fast as he could, heart pounding, and when his eyes landed on the other hero, guilt and horror slammed into him. Another icicle man had risen from the snow and its spear was no longer in its hand, but rather poking out of Warriors. He lifted the mask off of the bottom half of his face, then spat some blood out of his mouth. He let his mask fall back onto his face, then tried to take a few steps forward before falling to his knees. 

“I’ll be fine… kill that thing.” 

Anger burned through him, quickly replacing the shame and terror, and War found himself scrambling to his feet and racing at the damned creature, sword raised. It must not have been prepared for his fury, because it did practically nothing to defend itself while he hacked it to pieces, screaming as he did. Once it exploded and he had a chance to scan the snow surrounding them for any signs of a secret sixth one, War turned to the other hero, chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath and keep his emotions under control.

“What the fuck was that?” he demanded, voice coming out much colder than he’d meant for it to. But despite his anger causing his bad hand to start shaking, he ran over to Warriors and carefully knelt beside him, reaching for his medic’s kit on his belt to see what he might possibly have to help. He could think about pulling the ice spear from him in a minute, he needed to know if he had anything that could help him stop the bleeding once he removed it.

“This would really hurt you, or even kill you,” Warriors answered as his hand curled around the ice spear. With a grunt, he pulled it out and tossed it away, though it didn’t make it very far. “It’s better me than you. This won’t kill me.” 

War let out a strangled noise, somewhere between a curse in his native language and a genuine scream of anger. “WHAT THE FUCK??”

He hadn’t even properly registered the last part of what Warriors had said, he’d been too distracted by watching the man rip out the only thing stopping him from bleeding to death. He knew he didn’t have his good supplies, surgeons tools and a single roll of bandages wouldn’t do shit to heal whatever internal damage had been the result of getting impaled. Warriors had just sealed his fate by ripping out that spear and War was so pissed and upset he wanted to rip his hair out.

They’d just met, he’d just met this man, why the fuck had he gone and taken such a hit for him?? He didn’t understand it, he didn’t understand why soldiers had thrown their lives away for him during the war either. He hated it, he wasn’t worth it. He could fight his own battles and he deserved to deal with the consequences of being so universally hated. People needed to stop stepping in for him.

He was so tired of bringing death and destruction whenever he went. This was his fault, he should’ve been able to hear the icicle man behind him. He should’ve been faster and been able to stop Warriors from getting impaled. He should’ve taken that hit, it was meant for him.

And to think for a moment he’d been worried that Warriors had suddenly turned on him… Gods, he was such an asshole and now this man was going to die all because of him.

“I don’t want to explain it all out here, so you're just going to have to trust me, okay? I’ll be fine. This isn’t even the worst impalement I’ve had. The bleeding should slow down soon…” he mumbled, patting his wound.

War sputtered in outrage, cutting himself off and scoffing before he went to try again but he completely lost his train of thought when he looked up at the other man’s mask, at the eyes that were looking out of it and noticed they were bright yellow with blood red rims. He admittedly hadn’t paid too much attention to Warriors’s eye color earlier, but he was pretty sure they’d been a sky blue. Not… Not whatever this was.

Warriors tensed up, then looked away quickly, looking down at this wound again. “We need to get going and find some shelter. I think we both need some rest. Can you help me up?”  

“You were impaled…” He felt like he was out of breath still, and he also recognized that his head felt like it was spinning now that his shock had eaten up his anger. Stating the obvious made him feel stupid but he didn’t know what else to say, he couldn’t wrap his mind around the situation. Why had Warriors’ eyes changed color??

“Yes, and it hurts and I need some bl-food and rest, then it’ll be like it never happened. Are we getting out of here or not?” he asked, raising his voice. 

His ears drooped in shame at the harsh tone and he let out a sigh. He was putting Warriors’s life at further risk by just sitting around and doing nothing. Gods, he needed to get it together, he was a trained field medic for Farore’s sake. He wasn’t useless.

“I have bandages,” War told him, pulling out a simple roll. “It’s not much but it could help slow the bleeding.”

Warriors was quiet for a moment, then he let out a sigh and raised his arms slightly. “Okay, bandages first, then we get going.” 

He nodded, frowning at the wound for a moment before unrolling the bandages a little and tearing a good piece of it off. After folding it a few times to create a flat surface, careful to keep his fingers from touching one side of it too much so it remained clean, he carefully pulled at the hole in the other man’s tunic so he could get the bandage as close to the wound as possible.

“Sorry if it hurts,” he muttered as a warning before he pressed it against Warriors’s stab wound. Warriors hissed in pain but he managed to keep himself still. 

“It’s fine,” he mumbled. 

“Can you just…?” War trailed off, trying to think of the best way to wrap the wound without the bandage he’d just set against the other man’s skin falling out of place. “Can you hold it? Here?” He very lightly tapped one of the top corners that he knew was over unaffected skin. He was sure it was still tender there, but it would be a good place for Warriors to hold it. “Just so I can wrap it and it’ll stay in place.”

Warriors let out a sigh, but he pressed a couple of bloody fingers over the corner. 

He didn’t appreciate how irritated with him the other man seemed, but he held his tongue because it was his fault Warriors had gotten hurt in the first place and tied the bandage in place as quickly as he could. When he finished, he immediately got to his feet and turned around, squinting as he walked around the area they’d just been fighting in. His eyes quickly landed on rich royal blue and he bent down to grab it, letting out a small grunt when the motion made his side ache. 

War didn’t waste time getting back to Warriors, holding out the scarf to him when he reached him in a gesture for him to take it.

Warriors took it. He ran his fingers over the cloth for a moment before he quickly tossed it around his neck and tied it in place with a quick knot. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “Are we good to leave now?” 

“What do you think would be the easiest way for me to get you to your feet?” he asked, letting out a slightly shaky breath. He was sure part of that was genuinely due to the cold, but he was also exhausted and relieved that Warriors didn’t seem as annoyed with him anymore. “I can try to get behind you and help just lift you up so you don’t have to strain yourself.”

“Sounds good to me,” Warriors said as he lifted his arms up.

War moved behind him, bending his knees and trying to keep his back straight before he hooked his arms under the other hero’s and began to lift him. His legs shook a little and for a terrifying moment he thought he might fall backwards or drop Warriors, but he forced himself to push through the strain he felt and got the man upright. Once Warriors had his feet under him, he allowed himself to take a quick step back to adjust his stance, and while he moved his arms he still kept a grip on the other hero in case he suddenly pitched forward and fell. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to pick him up again if Warriors fell.

“You good?” He asked, trying to suppress a shiver.

“Good as I can be,” he answered. “Hopefully we can find another cave or something… then I can explain why I’m not dead right now.” 

War was definitely very curious to find out, and to get an explanation as to why his eyes were yellow, but he didn’t say anything in response, instead just humming in acknowledgment. He let Warriors drape an arm over his right shoulder, so that his side that had been whacked by the spear wasn’t pressed against the other man, and carefully they began to walk. It was a bit tricky due to the snow, the looser stuff would shift and sink under his boots and threaten to send him off balance, but they managed to not fall. 

He wasn’t sure how long they spent walking. Neither of them spoke, he wasn’t in the mood for it much and Warriors was probably in enough pain that he didn’t want to waste his energy talking, and while he didn’t mind the silence at a certain point, the feeling of being so close to another person was making his skin burn. The close proximity helped shield him from some of the wind and he wasn’t as cold as he had been, but he’d started wanting a bit of personal space after a while. Not that he would take it, because there was nowhere for him to go and he wouldn’t abandon Warriors. He didn’t know what the other man thought of him, he wasn’t sure he liked him much, but he still couldn’t imagine abandoning him. Especially not after he’d taken this hit for War.

They weren’t the same person and they certainly didn’t live identical lives, but they were both the Hero of Warriors, so War wanted to trust him. And in however much time they had to work together for, he wanted Warriors to be able to trust him too.

At a certain point he started wondering if it would’ve been worth it to back track and see if there were any caves that they’d passed before the icicle men had appeared, since all he was seeing was the big snowy nothingness, but eventually a small shape appeared in the distance. He squinted, praying his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him and that it really was a little traveler’s cabin that sat in the distance.

“I think things are finally looking up,” Warriors said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a cabin before.” 

“Maybe the gods can show mercy after all,” he groaned in relief, already dreaming of starting a nice fire to curl up by. But excited as he was, he didn’t push Warriors to walk any faster than they had been, not wanting to hurt him. The cabin wasn’t going anywhere, and it appeared to be one of those cabins in the mountains for travelers to stay at so long as they replaced supplies and helped keep the place nice. And, judging by the lack of smoke from the chimney, it was unoccupied.

Oh, oh, the gods were being kind to them indeed.

When they reached the door that had a welcome sign hanging from it, War kicked at it to mimic a knock just in case there was someone in there, and when there was absolutely no response he used the hand that wasn’t helping hold up Warriors to open the door before shuffling them both inside. It was a decent sized cabin, the main space they’d entered was clean and tidy looking and he could see at least two rooms that branched off from it. He could’ve plopped Warriors down in one of the chairs around the wooden table, but he figured the other man might not want to move around much once he sat so War pushed him a little farther until they got to another room that contained two beds.

“Here,” he said, moving from Warriors’ side so he could help him sit more easily. 

Warriors sighed as he started removing his cloak and scarf, tossing them both towards the foot of the bed. He stopped at the tunic and picked at the bandages. “Do you have any more bandages? They’re not necessary but I don’t want to get blood on the bed.”

War raised an eyebrow at him in confusion, but nodded. “I have some more, yeah.” 

He ducked his head to look into the pouch on his belt he knew held the rest of the roll and found himself blinking away spots when the action made him dizzy. Eating exclusively cashews for so long was starting to cause problems, he’d need to get himself a real meal soon if he didn’t want his blood sugar causing issues, but that’d be a problem for after he helped Warriors.

“Do you want my help?” He asked, a little awkwardly because he didn’t want to bother the other hero now that he finally didn’t seem to be irritated by him. “I can clean it up for you and bandage it properly now.”

Warriors took off the mask and added it to the pile he had at the end of the bed. “Yeah, go ahead. I’m sorry I was irritated earlier, I just wanted to get moving. Besides, I think you need to look at it before we start talking.” 

He didn’t think it’d be possible to get any more confused but War found himself growing more and more curious the more vague and strange Warriors continued to be.

“It’s alright, you were impaled,” he said as he waved his hand. “I wouldn’t be in a chatty mood either.”

Warriors untied the knot keeping his bandages together and began unravelling them, then suddenly paused and chewed on his lip. “How did you do this?” he asked. 

“I just tucked the…” War started by trailed off when he glanced up at the other man’s face and caught sight of what looked like fangs.  

“I thought these were outside of my tunic,” he said with a frown as he fiddled with the bandages again. “Oh, there we go.” It took him a minute to get the bandages off completely, but once he did, he started removing his belts and boots. 

“I tucked the one piece inside, so it was sitting more firmly against the wound instead of fabric from your tunic or your chain mail,” War tried again, speaking slowly as he just stared at the other hero’s fangs. 

“Ah. I know how to treat some wounds but I never specialized in it. I barely do anything for mine anymore anyway, it’s for the others,” he said as pulled the tunic over his head, then added it to the pile. He bit his lips again and let out a hiss of pain. “I’m going to need help with the chain mail.” 

What in the fuck did he mean by that???

“Y- Yeah, of course,” he blinked, taking a few steps forward to help. 

Taking chain mail off another person wasn’t something he was completely unused to, having had to help out his fellow soldiers more than once when they were unable to do it themselves, but it was a little difficult due to his aching side. He really should take a look at that soon, but he just sighed and set Warriors’s mail on the foot of the bed by his other things.

Warriors got the final layer, his undershirt, off on his own. He poked at his wound. “You said you would clean it earlier, but I only really need the bandages. Infection isn’t something I have to worry about, but it is inconvenient if there is debris in it.”  

“That…” He gasped, bending down so he could get a better look at the wound. Warriors had been impaled and even with him having aid from War, he’d walked himself to the cabin. There should be far more blood coming from him, and with just a simple bandage holding him together he shouldn’t even have made it as far as he had. The wound was still bleeding, but there was far more dried blood scabbing over the mess than was… normal. “That’s not…? You should be bleeding far more than that, what the fuck??”

“I told you it would slow down,” he started. “It’s all because I’m a… I’m a vampire. Or, half-vampire, actually. My body regenerates from basically anything, all the way back to how I was before I got turned into a vampire. As long as I’m not burnt into nothing, decapitated, staked through the heart, or starved, I will survive and heal from anything. I’ve taken way worse for other people. If I have to be a monster… I might as well be a useful one.” 

War sat down hard, blinking in confusion. There was no way he’d heard him right. “…What?”

“I’m a vampire. I need to drink blood to live and also keep me sane. That’s what the fangs are for. I don’t think the eyes have to be so weird but that’s just the way they are when my fangs are out… They’re, uh, usually retractable, and that’s why my eyes haven’t always been like this, but because I’m injured…” Warriors looked away, focusing on his pile of clothing at the end of the bed. “I’m going to need blood sooner rather than later. I can heal on my own, but I also need blood and rest to do so.” 

His head hurt so bad, and he was struggling to fully wrap his mind around everything. He’d heard of vampires before, he was pretty sure. The name sounded familiar at least, he’d probably read about them from a book in the castle library, but he had so many questions. Though those were going to have to wait, because not only did Warriors seem a little uncomfortable, he actively had a hole in him. And to fix that he’d need… blood. And the only source of that around here was War.

This man had just saved his life… This was the least he could do.

It took no time at all to get his bracer off and roll up his sleeve, and he held out his whole right arm towards Warriors. “How do I give it to you?”

“I just have to bite you, but… I’m not biting somebody who only ate cashews the entire time we've been together. If you faint on me, I am throwing your ass off the mountain,” Warriors said, as he grabbed for his bag. He hissed again, but once retrieved, he opened it up and dug through it. First, he pulled out that extra blanket, then his bedroll, and then finally, some leather satchels. “There’s dried fruit, more nuts, and jerky. Take your pick.” 

“Hey!” War cried out as he pushed himself up onto his knees, so overwhelmed by just everything that he was starting to feel a bit stressed. “Stop moving around so much and let me bandage that for you first. You can set up your shit in a minute.”

“Most of that is for you! I felt you shivering, figured you can have the extra shit to sleep with. But fine, bandages first, then you eat so I can eat,” Warriors answered with a huff as he rolled his eyes. 

He needed to just stop fucking talking maybe because he sure was making himself out to be both an asshole and an idiot. War felt his cheeks burn in shame and he kept his jaw firmly shut as he grabbed his bandage roll and wrapped it around Warriors, making sure it was secure but not too tight. When he finished he sat back down with a small sigh, staring awkwardly down at his hands. 

Warriors sighed. “You need to eat a little bit if I’m going to drink your blood. I don’t want my stupid diet to hurt people.” 

“Alright,” he muttered, accepting one of the leather satchels from the other hero and taking a couple pieces of jerky. It was dead silent while he ate, leaving him alone with his shame and guilt, and the second he was done chewing he held out his arm to Warriors again. He wasn’t super eager to have his blood drained from his body, even if part of him was very curious to know what that’d even feel like. This was about paying back Warriors. 

Warriors took his wrist. “It’s going to hurt, and if you feel dizzy at all, just twist my ear. Sky does it all the time, it works pretty well,” he said as he brought War’s wrist closer to his mouth. At first, he just placed his fangs on the inside of his wrist, then he bit down. 

He hadn’t really gotten the time to grumble out that he was already a bit dizzy, and the second Warriors’ fangs pierced his skin he found himself trying not to jolt in shock. The other hero was right, it did hurt, but it also just felt fucking weird. Of course he’d gotten wounded before and nearly bled out, but this felt strange and more than a little different. It didn’t take long for him to get uncomfortable with the feeling of hands clamped around his wrist, but he didn’t feel like he was in danger of passing out so he didn’t pull away.

War wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there, but he noticed himself starting to feel a bit ill. A wave of nausea washed over him and he grit his teeth, but he didn’t bother to tap Warriors on the head until he started seeing spots and feeling like he was swaying a little. 

Warriors pulled his fangs out, then angled his wrist slightly so he could lick the remaining blood off his wrist before he let go. He licked more blood off his lips and teeth. 

“Are you alright?” 

War nodded, immediately wishing he hadn’t when the motion made the world around him feel like it was moving. He had barely enough strength in the arm that hadn’t been bitten to lower him safely down to lay on the floor instead of crashing into it, letting the one that had been bitten flop to the ground uselessly above his head. His spine popped audibly as he sprawled out on the floor, and he groaned when some of the pain in his lower back disappeared. The spots in his vision weren’t clearing, but they weren’t getting any bigger so he’d take the win where he could.

“Ah - fuck. Did I take too much?” The bed creaked as Warriors shifted, then he swore again and his foot brushed against War’s leg. “Don’t lie to me. Are you okay?” 

The back of his neck felt incredibly hot, and if he didn’t feel so gross and miserable he might’ve been a little grateful that he finally didn’t feel frozen. But at least he had some idea as to what was wrong, he knew he felt like this when his blood sugar was too low and it’d make sense that after losing blood his sugar would be low. He hadn’t eaten that long before Warriors bit him, probably not long enough, and he’d been feeling like shit for most of the day. He needed a real meal… 

He wasn’t really in the mood to eat though, he was so nauseated he wanted to close his eyes and melt into the floor.

“War? You still conscious? You look just as bad as Twilight when he fainted on me.” 

“Yeah,” he croaked out, grimacing when it felt like his stomach did a flip. He hadn’t felt this bad in a while, he really needed to eat something before it got worse. “…Food?”

“Yeah, dried fruit or more jerky?” he asked. The bed creaked again as Warriors retrieved his bag. “Sorry it’s not more.” 

“Fruit,” War mumbled, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. “I need the sugar.”

“That’s this satchel,” he said as put the open bag beside War’s hand. 

He didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to make himself feel more ill, so he just stuck a shaking hand in the little bag and grabbed a few pieces to bring up to his mouth, keeping his eyes closed. It felt a little weird to just lay there chewing, listening to Warriors breathe right above him, but he couldn’t exactly do anything to strike up a conversation in his current position and the other hero didn’t seem too interested in chatting anyway. That didn’t make War any less curious about the whole vampire thing, but he’d have to ask about that later and when he didn’t worry so much about just pissing him off. 

“If you’re alright, I think I’m going to pass out now,” Warriors mumbled. He didn’t see Warriors climb back into bed but he definitely heard him. “I tend to sleep for a long time when I’m regenerating. Don’t worry if it’s been like twelve hours and I’m still sleeping.” 

He let out some sound of acknowledgement, not yet daring to open his eyes. The back of his skull was starting to hurt from how it was resting on the floorboards but he remained still, unwilling to risk making his nausea worse. War just laid there and waited for the dried fruit to help him feel less awful, unable to stop himself from missing Time when he realized the last time he’d ended on the ground like this, his brother had been there to help him. He really hoped the others weren’t too worried about him, and that he could find them soon.

When his stomach finally settled and he didn’t feel as shaky, he still gave himself a few minutes before he dared to push himself into a sitting position. The motion made him feel a little ill and he panicked for a split second before the nausea disappeared again once he rested his shoulders and head against the side of the mattress. He probably should’ve opened his eyes first, but he didn’t have too much time to beat himself up for being an idiot because the change in position reminded his body how freezing cold it was and he realized maybe some of his shaking had actually been shivering. 

“Fuck…” He sighed, running a hand down his face. 

He spared a glance down at his right arm and wasn’t entirely sure what to think of the two little marks where he’d been bitten. They looked like they’d be able to scab over on their own, the blood already drying, so he figured it’d be fine to just leave them.

Taking a moment to eat some of his emergency cashews and make sure his legs weren’t going to give out from underneath him, he pushed himself up to his feet as soon as it felt reasonable to do so. He let out a pained and confused sound when he felt an ache in his side before he remembered he’d been smacked by a spear and groaned. He should probably check on that before he rested, but he should probably also check on Warriors first. 

Warriors was, as he’d said he’d be, completely passed out on the bed, his belongings still thrown at the foot of it where they had been last time War had seen them. He frowned at the bloody tunic and shirt, wondering for a moment if the other man would be mad at him for mending them for him. That would definitely be a later activity, War was still feeling a bit gross and more than that he was tired , but he grabbed the ruined clothes in one arm to put them aside for when he felt like working on them. Before he left the bedroom he grabbed Warriors’s cloak with his free hand and gently pulled it up over the sleeping man. It was clear at this point that he didn’t feel temperature the same that War did, maybe that was because of the vampire thing or maybe he was just fucking weird like Twilight was, but he wanted to make sure Warriors didn’t get too cold.

After checking to make sure the other hero was breathing normally and seemed okay, War headed into the main room, setting Warriors’s shirt and tunic on a table before almost crying in joy when his eyes landed on a stack of logs by the fireplace as well as the tools he’d need to start a fire. He was so excited about the idea of warmth and not being so fucking cold that he moved a little too fast and felt his head spin, but he didn’t care because the dizziness wasn’t enough to stop him from setting up the fire. 

In no time at all, he felt the air start to warm around him and he let out a happy sigh, eyelids falling half closed. He forced himself back up on his feet and over to where Warriors had laid out the bedroll and blanket for him to borrow before he could fall asleep, and hurried back to set up a nice little spot by the fire. 

Being warm and not horribly frozen was so nice… He was never going to take it for granted again.

War really didn’t want to take his tunic off, he didn’t want to expose his bare skin to the air and feel cold again, but it’d be nice to get rid of his chain mail and he really did need to check his ribs and make sure the didn’t look too fucked up so he peeled his layers off slowly, grumbling the whole time. Shivering and continuing to whine to himself about absolutely nothing, he decided he didn’t need to fully take off his undershirt and could instead just lift it up to look at his poor ribs. It was hard to twist his neck at the right angle to see without a mirror but none of them looked crooked or bent out of place, which was lovely because he was forever scarred by the time during the war he’d looked down at his own smashed rib cage and ever since then he didn’t fuck around about the possibility of broken ribs. The skin was certainly a bit red, and him pressing on it did hurt, but he didn’t feel the bone shifting at all and so he figured they’d be fine so long as another icicle man didn’t decide to treat him like a punching bag. Or any other kind of monster.

The warmth from the fire was making him a bit sleepy and even though he’d spent so much time arguing to himself about how cold he was, he found himself too lazy to put his green tunic back on and instead wrapped himself in his scarf and Warriors’s blanket before laying down to rest his eyes. If the other hero was going to be unconscious for several hours there was no reason he couldn’t get a good nap in.

Chapter Text

It took him a second to remember where he was and how he got there. He quickly sat up and looked around, hoping to see War nearby, but he was nowhere to be seen. Well, he supposed he couldn't really expect the other man to stay around in the bedroom while he slept for who knows how long. He thought maybe War would be sleeping in the other bed but it didn’t look like anyone slept in it at all. 

Well, fuck, there was a blanket on that bed too. War could have taken that one. Warriors didn’t need to offer his blanket, he just did it without thinking because that’s what he did in the cave. Maybe War liked his blanket better but the other man used his cloak to give Warriors additional warmth. He was touched that the War thought of him, especially after Warriors got irritated with him, but there was another blanket. 

He sat up. He should go look for the other hero, though he doubted that he went far. He stood up and slipped into his boots, then went to the end of the bed to grab his shirt. 

Warriors didn’t remember folding his things at all. He was pretty sure he just tossed everything in that general direction, eager to get it all off so he could get some sleep. Maybe War folded it for some reason? Either way, he found his shirt in the pile and frowned in confusion. There should have been a big hole in his shirt and there should have been a lot of blood too, but he didn’t find any of that. It took him a minute to even find the stitches. Warriors knew how to sew but he didn’t think he could do as good of a job as War did. He quickly put it on and headed towards the main room where the fireplace was. 

War was in front of the fireplace, writing something down. He wasn’t sure what to say to him. 

“Thanks for fixing my shirt,” he started. He figured it was a decent way to start a conversation. It was polite and it also didn’t mention the time of day because he had no idea how long he slept for. 

“Of course,” War looked up and gave him a small smile before turning back down to his journal. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like I should be asking you that… but I’m fine. I think I might need another day before I’m fully healed, but I’m fine.” He tried to study War for a little longer, trying to see how he was doing. He didn't look like he was a corpse on the floor, so he must have been feeling better. “What about you?” 

“I’m alright,” the other hero said quietly, finishing up whatever it was he was writing before closing his book and turning on the floor to face him. “Sorry if I worried you, I didn’t think that would happen. It’s not your fault or anything, I just have uh… Blood sugar issues. If you need more of my blood in the future it won’t be a problem if I prepare for it better.”

Huh, blood sugar issues. He wouldn’t have guessed, especially since War tasted like most people did. “I’m kind of surprised that blood sugar doesn’t really affect the taste,” he said out loud as he located a chair to sit on. He appreciated how warm the room was because of the fire but he didn’t want to sit anywhere near it. “I’m… sure you have a lot of questions about the whole vampire thing. You can ask anything you want, but if it makes me uncomfortable, I’m not going to answer it.” 

“I do have questions,” War picked his scarf up from the floor and wrapped it around his shoulders, though he stayed seated on the floor near the fire instead of joining him in the other chair, “but I don’t want to pry. Whatever you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow. “Really? The first question my Wind asked me was if I could get drunk drinking a drunk person’s blood, so I’m kind of surprised that I’m the one leading this conversation. Do you have a general topic at least? I have to admit, I don’t really know where to start.”

“Can you?” War asked in a somewhat joking tone. “Get drunk that way, I mean.”

“Yes, actually. It doesn’t even take that long before I feel it… that or Twilight was just that drunk. Twilight was drunk but I was the one who got the hangover. It’s not fair!” 

The other hero let out a small laugh. “I should’ve been able to guess Twilight would test something like that.” War paused for a moment, looking down at his hands before speaking again. “If you don’t mind my asking, what… happened? I don’t know much about vampires, like at all, but I don’t think people are born as vampires.”

“You’re right, people are made into vampires, mostly by other vampires. I only met other vampires after I got turned though. I’m the weird one who got cursed instead and I think you can take a guess as to who cursed me,” he answered with a slight growl. He wasn’t mad at War, nor did he think the question was unfair. It was just a reminder he didn’t exactly like but he calmed himself down quickly. After all, it wasn’t War’s fault that he was reminded of Cia - it was his own. “That’s also how I only ended up being half -vampire though. The Triforce prevented me from turning into a full vampire.” 

The other hero stared at him in confusion for a moment before Warriors watched as it clicked in his brain. War’s eyes went wide with either horror or fear, he couldn’t quite tell, and he saw some of the color leave his face as War pulled his scarf tighter around himself. 

“When you…” War tried to mumble out, rubbing his thumb over the scarf’s embroidered edge. “When you mentioned her earlier, I… I don’t know, I thought maybe there might’ve been a timeline where she left one of us alone. Where she didn’t-” He cut himself off and forced himself to take a deep breath. “But she cursed you…? Cia?”

Warriors wondered if their experiences with Cia were also different. They were different people with the same role, but were Cia and Lana also different people, or were they same people in all the different timelines? Did Cia try over and over again, doomed to chase down the Hero of Warriors until she got one of them, or was there a Cia for every Hero of Warriors? Meeting War brought up a lot of questions that he knew he would never get an answer for and he wasn’t quite sure he liked thinking about it. There was certainly some existential dread that came with thinking about potentially infinite timelines. 

“She did,” he answered quietly. “When we had our final fight, she hit me with a weird spell. I didn’t feel anything until we got back to the castle, and even then, I just thought I must have been sick with something. We eventually discovered that it wasn’t just an illness when I tried to attack my allies… I don’t even remember that night.” 

“That’s awful,” War whispered, tilting his chin down to stare at his lap instead. 

“I was pretty fortunate though. I don’t think I actually hurt anybody that night, and I did wake up in a manor full of real vampires. They helped me learn how to blend in and how to take care of myself.” All things considered, it could have gone way worse. He could have seriously hurt somebody in his starved state. Mask and Tune were both there and both of them were in danger. He was also lucky that Zelda knew the vampires at all so he could be mentored. They weren’t entirely useful, at least where his powers were concerned, but he wouldn’t have been able to hide his vampirism and defeat Ganondorf without their help. 

“Are there a lot of other vampires in your era?” the other hero asked. “Or- Well, I guess in your timeline…? I feel like if there were vampires around in my timeline people would know about it.” He fell silent for a second and Warriors almost had a chance to answer him before War shook his head and let out a sigh. “Actually no, some of the people I’m surrounded by are so stupid they couldn’t see the painfully obvious if it smacked them in the face, there very well could be vampires.”

“So, they would only notice if I bit somebody?” he asked with a smirk that showed off all his fangs.  “To be fair though, the vampires in my era don’t engage with the public at all, so they aren’t exactly public knowledge. They live in the basement of the manor, so even if there was some fancy event there, most people wouldn’t go into the basement. There’s a hylian family that lives in the rest of the manor and they take care of all the nobility things for them. There are only five of them, six if you include me. There’s supposedly a lot of them outside of Hyrule though.”

“So most other hylians are unaware of vampires in the kingdom?” War looked up at him again and raised an eyebrow. “Or is it more that they’re unaware that vampires exist?”

“More the latter, I think. I think there’s only four fellow soldiers who know and I don’t remember who they all are so I don’t even know how they know, then there’s Impa, Proxi, and Zelda. The others know too, of course. Outside of that, I’ve never heard anyone say anything about vampires, and Zelda and the vampires insisted that I needed to do my best to keep my vampirism a secret. There’s nothing stopping people from leaving and coming back with the knowledge of vampires, but I haven’t heard of that happening.” 

It did come in handy, though. If the assassins knew about vampires, how to kill them, and that he was a vampire, they could actually manage to kill him. He was hard to kill to begin with but if they knew to stake him through the heart, that’s what they would try. A decapitation would be a bit too messy for them. 

“Huh…” The other hero nodded. He was quiet for a moment, brows furrowed as he thought, before he spoke again. “So about the whole you getting impaled thing, and you needing my blood…?”

“Most things can’t kill me,” Warriors said with another smirk. It was a weird thing to brag about but his hardiness was the silver lining that he needed to focus on. “One of the only things I like about being a vampire is that I can take all the bad hits because I only need blood and sleep to heal. My body also heals until I’m back to the way I was when I was first cursed. I once had my arm cut off, I once shattered all the bones in my legs and hips, and that wasn’t even the first time I was impaled. I healed from all of that just fine. I took that hit because I knew I would be fine. You wouldn’t be.” 

The regeneration was easy to talk about but the reason why he needed blood wasn’t as easy to talk about. Warriors knew he had to be honest about his hunger because his hunger was the one thing that could put War in danger. What if War wanted nothing to do with him after that? 

“As for the blood… it’s the only thing I technically need to live. I can eat solid food but that’s just optional. I need blood for my powers to work and I also need it to… stay aware of myself…”

War’s head tilted to the side and he looked a little more confused. “What do you mean by that?” 

Warriors felt a pinch of annoyance bubble up in his chest but he took a deep breath and calmed himself. He could see why War needed some clarification but it still irked him. It wasn’t War’s fault - his annoyance was probably a result of being a baby vampire who can’t handle his stupid emotions. 

War deserved to know who he was travelling with, so he took another deep breath. “If I get too hungry or too angry, the vampire instincts kick in instead and… I can’t tell friend from foe. I’m just… not there.”

“Like dissociating or…?”

“I don’t know…” He never really thought of trying to put a name to it. Warriors was too busy trying to figure out how to prevent it from happening at all. “All I know is that I’m a danger to other people.” 

“Do you need more?” War asked genuinely, pushing his sleeve up and holding out his arm. “You said you’re not fully healed yet, and that you need blood to heal. I won’t fall over this time, I ate something recently.”

“It should be fine,” Warriors said as he shook his head. He appreciated the offer, especially since War didn't seem deterred at all even after everything he said. War knew there was a possibility that he could lose control and didn’t run out the door, but that could because War hated the cold so much that he would rather stay with a potentially dangerous vampire than go back outside.  “I’ll keep healing with what you already gave me. Besides, we should save it if we end up staying together longer than expected. Filling food can stave off the hunger for a week or so if I don’t use my powers or get hurt again, but we basically only have snacks. I'll probably need blood again in another three days or so." 

The other hero frowned slightly, he almost looked worried. “Are you sure?” 

“Positive. You might be my only source of blood for a few days and you need it too. It doesn’t even hurt that much,” he said as he stood up suddenly and pulled up his shirt. “Want to look?”

“Alright,” War shrugged. “Can’t deny that I’m curious to see how fast you’ve healed up.”

Warriors stayed still and held his shirt up as War unravelled the bandages. When the other hero pulled the last of it away, Warriors looked down. He was happy to see that it went from a large circular wound to a smaller, more linear wound. It looked like he was slashed with a knife, not that he was impaled by a giant icicle. It still looked kind of deep but it was still far better than it was before. 

“It might be more like half a day but we might as well stay the whole day again," Warriors mumbled. 

War didn’t seem to have heard him, he was too busy staring at the injury in amazement. “Gods, that’s incredible. Are you in a lot of pain still or is it feeling better?”

“It’s better than it was but it still hurts a little bit,” Warriors answered as he let go of his shirt, letting it fall back down while War was still looking at it so he could sit back down. He was feeling a lot better but he was still kind of tired, so he wasn’t exactly in the mood to stand for more than he had to. 

“Is there anything I could do to help?” the other hero asked, fixing how his scarf laid around his shoulders before pointing at where Warriors’s wound was now covered. “Not just with this, but just… With any of the vampire things. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Remember how I said earlier that my skin is sensitive to sunlight? That’s a vampire thing. I’m only half-vampire, so I can actually tolerate some sunlight, but the sun reflecting off the snow kind of burns my eyes. I also tend to be a lot more alert at night than I am during the day. I have super speed and strength, and I can walk on walls, but I would need to drink blood again because using my powers makes me hungry…” Warriors paused as he thought about what else War could possibly need to know. He wasn’t used to listing it all off because the others were told pieces at a time or figured things out on their own. “Any sort of light magic is basically sunlight to me but I doubt we will run into any of that up here. The others just let me sleep, I’ve bitten Wild once when he tried to wake me up…” 

He was sure he was missing something but he figured that was at least a good start.  

“Wait, one more thing. I fucking hate garlic. I hated it before I was cursed and now it smells ten times worse. Farore should have skipped them. If there’s one good about this mountain, it would be that garlic can’t fucking grow up here.” 

“You can climb walls?” War’s eyes widened. 

Warriors blinked, but he stood up and walked up to the wall with the least amount of things on it. He only really did it the one time but he took a deep breath, focused on the wall, and focused on what he wanted to do. He put a foot on the wall, then a hand to hoist himself up, and then another foot. With both feet on the wall, he took his hand off and walked up until he was standing on the ceiling. 

“This is only the second time I’ve done it!” he said with a laugh. He actually managed to do it again! 

“Holy shit??” War gasped, eyes wide. “That’s amazing!!”

“I thought I didn’t really have powers at first but…” Warriors trailed off when he realized that something didn’t quite feel right and he couldn’t figure out what it was until he was airborne for a split second before he hit the floor. He somehow avoided landing on his neck but his back wasn’t so lucky. “I didn’t know I could fall.” 

There was the sound of fabric being tossed aside before War appeared right next to him. “Are you alright?”

Warriors felt his face and ears burn. He fucking fell. He rarely ever felt like showing off his powers and the one time he did, he fucking fell. He wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. At least nobody from his group saw, otherwise they wouldn’t let him live it down unless he snapped at them. 

Was he fine though? He could wiggle his fingers and toe without any pain, so it didn’t feel like he broke anything other than his ego. His back was sore and he was sure it would bruise if he didn’t drink more blood, but he didn’t really want to drink more from War when he already had a drink from him. War promised he would be okay but that didn’t mean Warriors liked the idea. He might delay them again if he didn’t drink any blood, though. 

“I might need a little bit more blood,” he said quietly as he used his arm to hide his face. “A sip,” he added.

War wordlessly held out his arm again, sleeve still rolled up, and sat down on the floor instead of just crouching next to him.

Warriors moved his arm to face War. He was just like his brothers, ready to feed him at the drop of a hat. He could see why War offered him blood before when he had a giant hole in his stomach, but he couldn’t quite understand why War was still so quick to feed him when that hole was mostly healed. 

“You’re awfully quick with that aren’t you?” he mumbled as he sat up, his back protesting as he did so. He grabbed War’s arm, noting the two scabbed over holes he made before. Those holes always  made him feel a little shitty, even though the people he bit didn’t ever complain but for once, they were going to work in his favour. He extended his nails into claws and as gently as he could, he scratched one of the wounds open and gave War’s arm a good squeeze. When Warriors was satisfied with the blood pooling to the surface, he licked it up. He squeezed War’s arms a few more times until he could feel the ache in his back dull. He dropped his arm. 

War raised his forearm to his face to look at it, frowning slightly at it as he watched, likely to see if the bleeding would stop on its own before he looked back up at Warriors. “Feeling better?”

Warriors nodded as he settled down on the floor again, staring up at the ceiling he fell down from. He still couldn’t believe he fucking fell. Was it just a thing that happened to him? He seemed to be the only one who struggled with his powers. “Do you mind if I ask you questions?” 

“Go ahead,” the other hero shrugged, heading back to his spot near the fire and pulling his scarf around his shoulders again. “I think that’s fair after I sat here asking you a bunch of personal shit.” 

“What language were you speaking before? When we were outside. I’ve never heard anyone speak it.”

“Oh, it’s… um…” War trailed off as he thought about his response. “My mother wasn’t from Hyrule, and well… Technically she didn’t move there from her village, the kingdom of Hyrule kinda… Took over… But yeah, me and my sisters weren’t raised speaking Hyrulian Common. We didn’t really think we’d ever need it, I mean we were taught a little but not enough to really be fluent. I wasn’t able to really hold a full conversation in it confidently until after I’d spent a few years in the army. I still think my Common could improve, I feel like I don’t get my words right sometimes.”

Warriors hummed. He didn’t exactly answer the question but he had a feeling that War wasn’t going to be completely forward about it. Oh well, best he could was move on to a different question and hope he didn’t offend him. 

“Sisters, huh? How big is your family?” 

“Two older sisters, my twin, and three younger ones,” he said casually as if that weren’t a lot of people. “Plus my mother. My oldest sister has kids now, I know my nephew just turned ten recently.”

“That’s…” He wanted to say it was unfair but that would be kind of rude. “A lot more family than I have. Remember how I said I signed up for the military? That’s because my aunt kicked me out as soon as I was old enough to enlist.” 

War frowned, looking a bit sad and confused. “She kicked you out?”

“She never really liked me so she got rid of me as soon as she could. She just felt obligated to take care of me, I guess. At least one of us has a loving family,” he said, keeping his tone light. He wasn’t mad at War. He wasn’t even sure that he was that mad at his aunt anymore, as he didn’t spare her much thought these days. It was only in quiet moments when he reflected on his past did he think of her and well, he had other people to direct his ire at. He didn’t have the energy to be mad at his aunt when it was Cia who cursed him and dropped all the pressure on his shoulders. 

“I’m sorry,” War said quietly. “Do you have other people back home? Like friends or a partner or someone? Someone to, I dunno, talk to or just spend time with?”

“Zelda, Impa, Proxi… and the vampires say I will always have a home with them, so that’s probably where I will go when I can’t hide the fact that I don’t age. There’s only two of them that give me the cold shoulder sometimes but I think they’re warming up to me.” At the very least, they tolerated him. He could live with that. “Do you have a partner, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

“I- Uh-” The other hero’s face flushed and he looked genuinely stuck on what to say. “Sort- No…? No. I have a friend, but not- I have friends. More than one.” War’s eyes went wide and his face turned even more red. “NOT LIKE- I mean I just- I have people who are friends, from the army and Zelda and yeah. Gods…”

Warriors burst out laughing. “You’re not so convincing. Is that how you talk to them?” he asked when he finally caught his breath. He winced in pain and put a hand over his wound. That hurt and it was completely his fault for laughing, but how could he not? It sounded like he had a little puppy crush! It was kind of cute.

“NO,” War groaned, burying his face in his hands. “He- I’ve known them for five years, we’re friends. We are friends, they like asking me shit about my travels whenever I get back and they know where my rooms are in the castle.” After a split second the other hero raised his head in a panic. “That sounded- I just mean they’ve met my cats. I have two cats, they’re hairless so they require a lot of care and one of them is a pain during bathtime so it’s nice to sometimes have help so she doesn’t hurt herself in the tub.”

Warriors thought that he was done laughing but War wasn’t helping himself and he had to hold his wound to help the pain as he started laughing again. “You keep digging yourself a hole. I don’t think you’re convincing anyone at home, except for maybe your ‘friend’.”  

“He is my friend!!” War argued, crossing his arms over his chest as he frowned at him. “But that doesn’t matter, are you alright? You look like you’re in pain.”

Warriors frowned and lifted his hand to pull his shirt up. There was a little bit of blood from the wound that wasn’t there before. He must have laughed so hard he reopened it a little bit. He scowled at it like it decided to do that on its own and not because he had any part in it. He also just realized that he didn’t get War to wrap it up again. He was going to have to wash the shirt again . 

“Apparently not!” he said, raising his voice in annoyance. 

“Shit,” War let out as he pushed himself to his feet and went to where his bags and belt were laying on the table, rummaging around for his roll of bandages before walking over. “Do you want me to wrap that for you or do you want to do it while I wash the blood out of your shirt?”

“I’ll wrap it, I guess,” he mumbled. Usually, he wouldn’t even bother but clearly, he was starting to push himself. He never really had this problem but he supposed that his brothers were just good at keeping him in one place and relatively still until he regenerated. They knew him better than War did, and well, he would be lying if he said he didn’t like showing off to War a little bit so he was willing to move more than he usually did. 

“Alright,” the other hero said, holding out one hand for Warriors’s shirt while offering him the bandage roll with the other. Warriors took his shirt off and exchanged it for the roll of bandages. He focused on wrapping them around his wound, frowning as he did so. They were just bandages but for some reason, he felt as though War did a better job with them. He tied it off and frowned again at the roll. There wasn’t a lot of it left, so he had to stop fucking around until it healed. 

Maybe he had some in his own bag and he just didn’t notice. He would have to look again. 

“Is there anything else I can do?” War called back to him as he headed towards the door, grumbling and cursing when he opened it, to grab a handful of snow and use it to wash the stain out of Warriors’ shirt. 

“I think I’m just going to go back to sleep for a bit,” he said quietly as he stood up and started to head back to the bedroom. “I should actually let this regenerate.”

He didn’t wait for War to respond. He kept the door open so that the fire could keep the room warm, not that he really needed it, but it was nice to be warm when it was so cold outside. He let his head hit the pillow and closed his eyes.

War had been back inside the cabin for the past fifteen minutes now, with the door shut firmly behind him and locked, but he was still shivering. Being inside with a nice warm fire had been wonderful, even if he was still a little chilly when he didn’t have his scarf wrapped around him, but stepping outside even for a moment had frozen him. His bones felt cold, and his hands kept shaking as a direct result of his shivering as he sat on the floor by the fire eating a little snack.

He was going to need more cashews soon, he was running out…

Warriors’ shirt was on the ground next to him, laid out so that the wet spot from the snow would hopefully dry faster near the heat. He was happy he’d been able to get the bloodstain out of the fabric though he felt bad his misfortune and inability to get his shit together had been so funny to the other hero that he’d literally hurt himself laughing over it.

War frowned at the shirt as he thought about all they’d talked about. The vampire thing aside, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Warriors had said after he’d questioned the man about his aunt that had kicked him out. War did have a loving family, one he was incredibly grateful for, and Warriors’ comment about that had hit him like a slap to the face because he had a wonderful family who loved and missed him and he hadn’t seen any of them but his twin sister in thirteen years. He hadn’t gone home since he’d first left, he didn’t feel like he could go back after everything that had happened during the war, and he felt horribly guilty and selfish that he had them but wouldn’t go home when Warriors didn’t have any family. He missed his mother terribly but the idea of her not liking who he’d become and him no longer belonging at home kept him away. He didn’t know what he’d do with himself if he lost them because they wanted the person he was back then more than they wanted the broken man he’d become.

Turning his gaze to the fire with a sigh, he forced himself to think about something else. He’d spent over the past decade worrying about that, making himself upset over it again now was just useless and stupid when he could be more productive. 

War grabbed his journal from the spot he’d set it aside and opened it up to a fresh page. He had barely known anything about vampires two days ago, and while he still didn’t know a whole lot, he had a start. He had some information about what could help Warriors, what the other hero needed to heal and survive, as well as what was dangerous to him. It’d be a good idea for him to write down as much as he could of what Warriors had told him so he didn’t forget. He had no idea how long they’d be traveling together, but with no sign of his brothers and being trapped on the mountain as they were he could safely assume he’d be with him for at least a little bit. He wanted to make sure the other Hero of Warriors had what he needed to be healthy and taken care of in the time they spent together, and so, with genuinely nothing better to do, he got to writing. 

Chapter Text

War opened his eyes with a wince, but he didn’t last very long before deciding maybe he should just close his eyes again and bury his face in his scarf. He’d fallen asleep at some point late last night, he wasn’t sure when, but his head ached and his fingers and toes felt cold because the fire had burned out, leaving him laying on the floor for no good reason. There was a bedroom with two beds and yet here he was on the floor, granted he did have Warriors’s bedroll, but gods he could’ve had a mattress. 

As he adjusted to being awake he became increasingly more aware of the ache in the hip he was resting on and his lower back, and as much as he didn’t want to move he needed to shift to get some of the pressure off his hip or it was going to drive him insane. He was not prepared for the sound his back made when he did move, the loud pop startled him even if it did help with some of the pain.

“Pelo amor das deusas,” War groaned, flopping around until he was face down. He really wanted to go back to sleep but the light coming in through the small window told him it was time to get moving, time to go look for his brothers. Even if it was horribly cold and miserable and awful outside.

Forcing himself up on shaky arms, he tried to stretch a little. His body ached more than usual, he was sure the temperature had something to do with it, but there wasn’t much else he could do besides gently stretch out his muscles and get dressed properly so he could get off this damned mountain. He worked quickly to get ready, driven by the knowledge that the more layers he put on himself the warmer he’d be, and when he’d finished he grabbed a few of his last cashews and popped them in his mouth before double checking that he had all his things ready to go. 

Not for the first time he wished he had all his things and that they weren’t with the others. He had nothing to use to straighten his messy curls and nothing to comb through them with besides his own fingers, which was better than nothing but still not the best at getting tangles out. He hadn’t been able to shave or have access to his makeup since he’d gotten dumped in that damn snow bank, so his scars were on full display and he was sure he looked like absolute shit. He missed his routine and being able to care for himself properly, and his things, and his brothers. 

Hopefully he could find them soon.

“Warriors?” he called when he was truly finished getting himself together, trying not to yawn as he twisted his head to glance at the bedroom. “You up?”

“Yeah, I just need a couple of minutes,” he called back. 

“Alright, take your time,” War told him, looking around the cabin to see if there was anything to tidy up while he waited. Within a couple of minutes, Warriors emerged from the bedroom, wearing his cloak and mask. He had his scarf in one hand. 

“You can borrow the scarf again if you pin it down this time,” he said simply. 

“Oh, thanks,” War blinked, taking the scarf from him before handing over Warriors' bedroll and blanket. “Thanks for letting me borrow these.”

Warriors nodded at him, then shoved both of them into his bag. “Did you eat anything yet? I still have some dried fruit. You need to keep your sugar up, right?” 

“Yeah,” he sighed, pinning the second scarf into place and making sure it wouldn’t move as he straightened out the fabric. “I had a little but I’m starting to run out of cashews, I have maybe seven left.”

Warriors stared at him, sighed, and headed towards the door. “I guess we should get going then,” he said as he opened it and walked through it, only to come back to the door a few seconds later. “Hey, War! How fast do you want to get off the mountain?” 

He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself with a small grumble when the cold air hit him. Oh, it was going to be a long day of walking through awful, horrible snow again, wasn’t it. “As fast as possible.”

“Now that you know that I’m a vampire, I have an idea! We can jump down the mountain and look for a town when we’re away from the cold!” he said, disappearing from the door again. 

“…What?” War called out in confusion as he went after him, grimacing when he fully left the warmth of the cabin. He shut the door behind him and turned to raise and eyebrow at Warriors when he caught sight of him again.

“I told you I have super strength and speed, right? It means I’m pretty good at jumping… kind of like using focus spirit without any of the magic. I think there’s enough solid surface to land on down the side of the mountain,” he said as he walked closer to the edge of the mountain. “I can carry you on my back.” 

War frowned as he thought about the offer. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being carried. He usually wasn’t the biggest fan of physical contact, not since the war, but it was either that or stand here and freeze to death. He could already feel his toes getting cold in his boots again… And if they did find a small town at the bottom of the mountain he could buy a real meal and maybe a warmer shirt. 

“Okay,” he said quietly, keeping his arms wrapped tightly around his middle as he stood there shaking in the cold.

Warriors bent down so that his knees were touching the snow. “Get on.” 

He could not remember the last time he’d crawled onto someone’s back like this, it must’ve been when he was younger and his oldest sister gave him a boost to grab something out of a tree. He’d jumped on Twilight a few times just to mess with the rancher and knock him over, but that was more him throwing himself at his brother, not safely getting onto his back with the intention of not pushing him to the ground. Warriors held his legs, then stood up and walked back to the cabin then turned around. 

“I just need a little room,” he explained. Then he ran and leapt over the mountain. The first landing was rough since Warriors slipped and for a second, they lurched to the side, but Warriors corrected himself quickly and jumped again. The second jump was further and higher than the first, so it took him longer to land and he only landed for a second before he jumped again. Warriors started laughing. 

War was doing his absolute best to not scream or accidentally strangle the other hero with how tight he was holding on. It somehow had not crossed his mind that hopping down a mountain would include sailing through the air like this and he felt dizzy. The few times he’d been to Skyloft he’d had to hold onto a wall or Sky to avoid being a shaky mess because his brain kept telling him the floating island would plummet to the ground or he’d fall off and every time Warriors tipped a little too far to one side he felt his heart skip a beat. Watching the world fly past them at uncontrollable speeds felt overwhelming and he ended up squeezing his eyes shut, putting all of his focus into holding on and not screaming in terror. Every time Warriors landed he was reminded of the ache in his ribs, and he tried to distract himself with that. It was only half working.

After what felt like a long time, but must have only been a minute or two, Warriors slowed down and then skidded to a halt. For a moment, he just stood in the same spot, probably to catch his breath. 

“Isn’t it nice to see some fucking dirt?” Warriors asked quietly. 

War slid off him and stumbled back, his shaking legs leading him to fall flat on his ass with a grunt but he didn’t care because he was on the ground and it was solid and that was beautiful. And it was dirt, it wasn’t covered in fucking snow!! It was still a little chilly but it was far warmer down here than it had been where the cabin was and War was so relieved he could’ve cried. 

“I think I need a minute,” he muttered, clutching a hand to his aching side and breathing a little heavily as if he’d been the one to leap down a mountain while carrying a full grown man.

“Agreed,” Warriors mumbled as he plopped himself down on the ground. “That was exhausting… and now I’m kind of hungry. I think I can hunt for food later though.” 

“Do you need anything from me?” War offered, stretching his legs out in front of him.

“No, let’s wait for a bit. There might be monsters down here too and if they’re not infected, I can drink from them. Their blood isn’t as tasty as people’s blood but it’ll do.” 

“You can taste the difference?” he asked in surprise.

“Yeah, monster blood and people or animal blood taste different. There isn’t really a difference between animal and people. Well, some people taste a little different… “ he paused and hummed to himself. “With monsters, I think stronger monsters taste better. Lynels tasted better than moblins, at any rate.”  

“Huh…” 

War let out a sigh, digging through one of the pouches on his belt for his earrings so he could put them back in now that it wasn’t freezing cold. It felt weird not wearing them, and he was paranoid he’d lose them or they’d fall out of their pouch somehow. He frowned when he pulled out three pairs of earrings, not having realized he had an extra pair on him, and ended up putting in the same ones he’d been wearing previously since the third pair were slightly bigger and less easy to sleep in. He had no intention of taking them out again soon, but if for some reason he felt like it, he did now have an extra pair. 

“When you were jumping down, did you see how far the town is?” He asked, clicking his last earring into place and making sure it wouldn’t come loose before fiddling with the hem of his scarf.

“We can get there before sundown, I think, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong. We’re both Link though, so something might go horribly wrong,” he said with a sigh as he stood up. “Are you ready to go?”

War let out a small laugh. Things did tend to go horribly wrong, but if there was one other thing that came along with being a Link was the ability to somehow make it through the impossible.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” he answered, pushing himself to his feet and straightening out his clothes. 

Warriors quickly pulled a piece of jerky out of his bag, lifted his mask up to shove it into his mouth, and put the mask back down. He motioned for War to follow as he started down the path. “Say… how did you end up on the mountain in the first place? Now that we know each other better.” 

“I don’t really remember,” he admitted as he came to walk beside him. “I mean the portals usually show up where everyone can see them and we go through together but- I was walking with Time and then Wild called me back because he and Legend needed something and next thing I knew I was half buried in a snow bank. I spent some time digging myself out of it and then I found you. I haven’t seen the others since.” War let out a slightly shaky breath before adding very quietly, “I’m not even sure if they’re here… I only assumed they were because we’ve never been separated like this before, but… um…”

Fuck, why did he suddenly feel so upset? He felt stupid for it, even worse for the way his eyes burned as they threatened to tear up, but honestly being separated from the others like this for so long was just digging straight into his fear that he didn’t belong with them, that he wasn’t a worthy enough hero and the gods had finally seen that and sent him away. The longer he spent without any sight of them the louder the voice in his head got that his fears were true.

Warriors paused, standing still in the middle of the path. “So you haven’t been on the mountain long before you realized I was following you… I wonder if this is somehow my fault, at least partially. I walked through a portal Lana made for me and I ended up on the mountain and if you weren’t there long, then we must have gotten there at the same time.” 

“Lana made you a portal?” War stopped, turning to look at him. 

Warriors looked at his own feet instead of his face. “I got injured pretty badly. You saw how fast I healed from getting impaled, right? It took me over a month to completely heal from those injuries and get back into shape, so I was pretty bad off. I had to tell my group to leave me behind because a portal appeared and I was still bedbound. When I was well enough to travel, I had to go to Lana so she could make me a portal. I didn’t want to wait for a portal to come back to my era to reunite with everybody. I’m not with my idiots, so clearly, something went horribly wrong.” 

“We’re both missing our friends and somehow ended up here with each other, wherever ‘here’ is…” He frowned. “I’ve been mapping out the constellations and such of each era I’ve traveled in so far. Stars don’t move much in our lifetimes but they do over hundreds and thousands of years. I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out about where on the timeline we are after each portal, give or take several hundred years, and the stars are a good pointer for direction. They make it easy to find Hyrule Castle. When it gets darker I can see if maybe we’re some time close to home, or maybe your friends if you know which era they’re in?”

“I don’t have a clue where or when they could be right now. It’s been like a month since I’ve seen them,” he said quietly. “They could have moved through a couple of eras by now. I think maybe trying to get the castle would be our best bet though. If one of our groups is miraculously with us in this era, then the castle would be somewhere they’re heading towards too. It’s the best landmark.” 

“We’ll find them,” War told him. “And I don’t care if we find my friends first, I’ll make sure you get back to yours.”

“How so? You think your group can handle two of us long enough for me to find my group? If your Legend is like my Legend, he’s going to explode.” 

He burst out laughing. “Oh he will, he saw my twin sister and cried ‘There’s two of him!!’ and I thought he was going to lose it right then and there. But he’ll just have to suck it up because I’m not going to leave you behind.”

Turning back around to keep walking, he took a good few steps before he realized he didn’t hear Warriors moving behind him. He looked back to find the other hero exactly where he left him and his brows furrowed in concern.

“You alright?”

“You keep offering your blood and now you’re making this promise… why?”

“You told me you needed the blood to heal, you were only injured because of me so I want to make sure you’re alright,” his frown deepened as he walked closer to Warriors. “Plus you shared your snacks with me so it’s only fair I share what I can with you. And why wouldn’t I help you find your friends? It seems cruel to just leave you here alone.”

“My snacks aren’t as big of a deal as your blood. You need that to live! And I understand why you feed me the first time around but you still keep being nice and I don’t… I can be dangerous. Monterous. I don’t know why people keep being nice to me.” 

“Anyone can be dangerous,” War crossed his arms over his chest, though he made sure to keep his tone calm and gentle. “I don’t think you’re as monstrous as you think you are. I have no doubt that the vampire thing is a heavy burden for you to carry, but your willingness to show kindness to a complete stranger like me,” he paused for a moment to point to Warriors’s scarf still pinned around his neck, laying on top of his own, “shows me you’re not a bad person. I’m going to help you find your friends because you deserve to be able to see them again after so long, gods know I’d be devastated to go so long without them, and I don’t mind giving you my blood because you didn’t take enough to hurt me. You could’ve, you could’ve killed me if you wanted but you didn’t.”

“I have done that before though! Somebody insulted my group and almost hurt them just to get to me and I tore her fucking throat out. That’s what monsters do, War. They tear people’s throats with their teeth. I didn’t even mean to kill her like that, I just lost control for a second and that’s all it took. That’s all it takes…” Warriors said, his chest heaving as he did so. “And the others have had to restrain me before for other reasons. I don’t know if I ever hurt any of them but it’s not like they would actually tell me if I did. They don’t even want to knock me out when I completely lose it again, even though it would be safer for them.” 

War tried not to let his shock show visibly on his face, it seemed like that wouldn’t do anything helpful for the other hero. He himself had killed people before, hylians in the war as well as the occasional assassin in self defense, and while he was aware of their circumstances being incredibly different, he understood the guilt. 

“If your friends are anything like mine,” he said slowly, thinking carefully about his choice of words, “they care about you a lot. They probably don’t want to hurt you.”

“I don’t want to hurt them either and I don’t want to hurt you, but it doesn’t matter how often I warn them, they just don’t seem to take it seriously. They just keep being nice and understanding when I don’t always deserve it,” he mumbled, looking down at his feet. His breathing did seem calmer though. “If I do lose control while we’re together, you’ll protect yourself, right?” 

“I’ll protect myself,” War promised, biting his tongue before he could keep talking and say that he wouldn’t hurt the other hero unless it was one hundred percent necessary. He wouldn’t stand there and let Warriors attack him, but he wouldn’t draw a weapon to fight him unless he absolutely had to. 

Warriors studied his face, then he nodded. “We should get going. I’ve delayed us enough.” 

Stupid vampire emotions. Warriors used to have pretty good control over his emotions in that he could shove them down when they were a hindrance and feel them later when he was alone and safe.  It also helped that back then, while he was put into many situations where he had to kill or be killed himself, he was always aware of what he was doing and why. There wasn’t a hole in his memory that his mind couldn’t go wild with. His curse threw everything out of the window - he lost that control, he had gaps in his memory and nobody wanted to fill him in, and he sometimes snapped at people who didn’t deserve it. 

Warriors didn’t mean to go as far as he did, he was just caught up in his stupid emotions being amplified by the fact that he was a young vampire. He should have just accepted War’s kindness and now everything was awkward. He was walking beside War but he wasn’t looking at him or talking to him. He just didn’t know what to say to the other hero. Warriors didn’t think he was wrong… but he also didn’t think War was wrong either.

“Hey,” the other hero whispered, holding out an arm to stop him as he frowned and looked around. “I think we may have company.”

“Huh?” Warriors barely processed the fact that they stopped walking, let alone the fact that War said something. He didn’t realize that he was so distracted. He could have walked off a cliff without noticing. He looked up from the arm stopping him and by the time he noticed that War was right, there was company, said company jumped out in front of them. Dinolfos. Before Warriors could draw his sword, one of them was charging towards them.

War drew his sword in seconds, rushing forward to knock the monster out of the way. It stumbled to the side with an annoyed cry and War didn’t give it the chance to recover, swinging at it while it was on the ground.

Right, he couldn’t just stand there and let War fight them all on his own. He didn’t know how or why War intended on making sure he found his brothers but he had to survive in order to do so. Warriors wasn’t going to let another hero die or get seriously injured just because he was distracted. He withdrew his sword and jumped, attacking a dinolfos that darted out into the path. His first strike didn’t kill it, but it did reveal something useful - they weren’t infected. 

There were only three of them, and two heroes. It would be a quick battle if all went well, then Warriors could drink some blood so that his trip down the mountain didn’t make him hungry later. It jumped back and with a huff, spat out a stream of fire. Warriors growled as he was forced to jump back. He knew fire wouldn’t immediately kill him but he still appreciated a healthy distance from it. Once it was done, he raised his sword and stabbed it through the chest. 

War finished off the dinolfos he’d knocked down before straightening up and turning to look at him. He’d opened his mouth to say something to him but then his gaze shifted slightly to the left, looking over at his shoulder instead, and he rushed at Warriors' side without warning.

“Look out!” 

War swung his sword and managed to block a strike from hitting him. The monster swiped at the other hero with its armored arm, successfully hitting him in the side and pulling a pained noise from the man, but War didn’t let that knock him too far off balance and instead raised his weapon again to whack the dinolfos harder. It only took him a few strikes before it fell to the ground and when he was sure it was going to stay down, War turned to him, hand clutching his left side.

“Are you alright?” he panted, giving the area around them a quick glance for any more monsters before he sheathed his sword and used his now free hand to brush messy curls out of his face.

Warriors looked down at the dinoflos beside him, then back at War. He swallowed hard. War saved him, probably in exchange for when Warriors saved his life, but he wasn’t going to question it or say it out loud. 

“Yes, thanks,” he said, looking down at the dead dinolfos again. It was still bleeding, wasting delicious and precious blood. “Um, can you turn around? I don’t like being watched when I’m drinking from monsters.” 

“Yeah,” the other hero wheezed, turning his back.

Once Warriors was sure that War wasn’t going to turn around, he stuck his sword into the ground, and knelt down beside it to lift its body up so he had better access to its neck. He slid his mask up so it was sitting on top of his head and then bit into it. He let himself get distracted again though this time, he was focusing on the blood filling his mouth because unlike with people, he didn’t need to be careful with monsters. It was the only time where Warriors felt alright indulging in his vampire instincts, drinking until he was full or until the monster had no more blood to give. Ideally, he would have killed it by draining it of all its blood because there was something about the struggle that the vampire enjoyed but his rational mind was horrified by. It was a bit more than Warriors was comfortable with showing to anybody, so he appreciated the fact that War didn’t turn around. 

When he couldn’t get anymore blood, he dropped the body and drew his sword out of the ground. With a swift swing, he cut its head from its shoulders. He licked what he could off his face and fangs, but was forced to go into his bag for a rag to wipe the rest of his face off. When he was satisfied that he was cleaned up, he retracted his fangs and lowered his mask down to his face. 

“I’m good now. We can keep going,” Warriors said simply. “Thanks for the save. I shouldn’t have been so distracted. At least one of us was paying attention.” 

“No problem,” War smiled, breathing a bit shallowly. 

“Are you alright?” Warriors asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew that he got hit during the battle but it didn’t look serious. 

“I’m not sure,” the other hero winced, keeping his hand pressed to his side. “I got hit the other day. I’d checked and it was only bruised and it wasn’t anything more than an irritating ache, it wasn’t messing with my ability to move, but the dinolfos hit me right where the icicle man did and it hurts to breathe.”

The longer he went on talking the more out of breath and pained he sounded. His ribs could be bruised, or maybe even broken, but for War’s sake, Warriors hoped that they were just bruised. Bruised ribs were still a bitch but there were fewer complications. 

“You probably need a potion, and if we had one, we would have used it already,” Warriors said with a sigh. “This might hurt, but how about I carry you on my back again? I can use my powers and get us there faster. In the very least, even if they don’t have any potions, we can get a bed and real food. I think you need a bit more than cashews to heal. The choice will be yours, though.” 

War looked nervous and he didn’t move his hand from his ribs, but he was also starting to look a little pale like his sugar was low, and he must’ve been feeling that because he let out a quiet, “Okay.”

He got down on a knee like he did before and when War felt secure on his back, he pushed out his fangs again and started down the path. At first, he was just jogging but within a minute, he worked himself up to a run. It wasn’t quite at his full speed because he didn’t want to exhaust himself too quickly, but he was still running faster than the average hylian could. He had to pace himself, otherwise he was jostling War no reason. He focused on his own breathing but he did notice that War wasn’t holding on as tightly as he was before. The other hero seemed tense but perhaps that was because his ribs hurt. He was definitely quieter too, but that was fine with him. Warriors couldn’t exactly afford to waste his breath. 

He didn’t know how long he ran for but eventually, Warriors saw buildings in the distance. Finally, the village! He slowed down and eventually stopped just outside of it. He retracted his fangs and lowered himself so that War could get off his back instead of falling off like he did last time. Warriors’ legs burned and it felt like he was back on square one in terms of how much blood he needed, but War’s health came first. A good meal could go a long way and buy him a few days, so he wasn’t too concerned about where he was getting blood next. 

“Can you walk on your own?” he asked War. 

“Yeah,” the other hero gasped, grinding his teeth and holding his hand back to his ribs.

Warriors watched him for a moment, but there was no reason not to trust him. He decided to walk behind him, far enough back to give him a little room but close enough that he could help him if War started to struggle. Thankfully, they didn’t have to walk too far to find a small market in the village with several stalls lining the street. It was a stand shrouded in purple cloth that caught Warriors’ attention.

“I think that’s our shop,” he said quietly to War as he left his side to investigate. He could see the bottles from the street but it was only when he was at the counter did he find that there were a lot of different potions. There were the green ones that he knew were used for magic, thankfully some red health ones, and also some blue ones that didn’t look to be the same colour as the ones that Wild made, and many more potions of other different colours. 

He purchased a couple of the red ones and passed one to War. He stuffed the other into his bag. 

“Thank you,” he breathed, uncorking it and taking a few sips. 

“Okay, next is the inn,” Warriors mumbled as he gave War a quick look over. 

“One moment, please,” the other hero groaned, taking another sip of the potion before he dared to press on his ribs and test how they felt. “Alright, should be fine.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow. The one good thing about a mask was that War couldn’t see him making weird expressions behind it. The other hero did look better though, so Warriors trusted that he was being honest. The only problem now was that Warriors didn’t even know where to begin to look for an inn. The village didn’t seem that big but a lot of the buildings just sort of looked the same. He picked a direction and began walking, making sure that he was slow enough to actually study the buildings and for War to keep up with him. Warriors learned from the cave hunt that he shouldn’t get too far ahead of himself. 

After a couple of minutes, they came across some buildings with signs that Warriors could almost read. A lot of the letters looked similar but not exactly the same as the script he knew from home. It was like deciphering bad penmanship where he could pick out some of the letters, but the rest looked like it could be a bunch of different letters at the same time or like a completely new letter. He turned to War. 

“Can you read this?” he asked in a whisper. He didn’t like admitting he couldn’t read out loud, but to be fair to him, he could read his own script just fine! He was probably looking at a precursor to his script, if he had to guess.  

War frowned at the sign, then squinted at it, and he opened his mouth to answer but his stomach growled instead. The other hero very quickly looked around with a huff before his eyes landed on a building not too far from them. “Forget the sign, I found the inn.”

“Huh? How?” Warriors asked as he followed War. 

“They tend to have moon signs over them,” he shrugged, pointing up at a sign above a door three buildings down. “At least a lot of them in the eras I’ve been to have seemed to have those signs.”

“...oh,” he mumbled. Now he felt a little silly. He never really noticed, and though he wasn’t the one usually looking for inns, he felt like he should have noticed. “Are we getting our own rooms? Sometimes, I wake up and one of the others is in the room with me. I think they just want to make sure I don’t… look different to civilians.” Sometimes, he woke up with his fangs out. He hated it but he also hoped that when he was on his own after their adventure was over, his fangs would behave and not pop out whenever they felt like it. He was sure that wasn’t actually the case but it sure felt like they had a mind of their own. 

“Do you want your own room?” War asked, turning to look at him with an open, genuine expression on his face. 

“I’m not used to falling asleep on my own,” he admitted. “I would prefer to share a room. Besides, if we save on rooms, we can spend more on food and I think we both deserve a nice, hot meal.” 

“Sounds good to me,” the other hero nodded, “I think I’d do just about anything for a real meal right now.”

Once they got to the inn, they were greeted by a man at the desk and the smell of cooked food wafting into the lobby. Oh, that smell was delightful. It was a welcome smell after two days or so of being in the mountain surviving off of blood and dried snacks. He quickly paid for the room and headed for the attached tavern that the innkeeper pointed out. It was early enough in the day where the room wasn’t completely packed, so it was easy enough for them to find a table and sit down. He took his mask off and put it into his bag. 

They were silent as they waited for food but once they got it, Warriors immediately dug in. The meat he got was basically raw and only lightly cooked on the outside but that was what he asked for. He was sure it was a little odd for the cooks, but raw meat helped him the most, and he would have gone for entirely raw meat if it was socially acceptable. He did get cooked rice and vegetables to go with it though, which he happily ate once he was done with his meat. 

For someone who had just been saying how hungry he was, War ate very little of the food on his plate. He’d taken maybe one bite of rice before just sitting there pushing food around and occasionally lifting his empty fork from near the meat and vegetables halfway towards his mouth before going back to pushing things around. Warriors raised an eyebrow. 

“Did they get your food wrong?” he asked. 

“N- No,” War answered a little too quickly, almost dropping his fork. 

“You okay?” he asked. He hoped he didn’t say the wrong thing. The man only had cashews, a piece of jerky, and some dried fruit the whole time they were on the mountain. Warriors didn’t get really ahead on the blood he needed since he ended up using his powers more than he thought he would, but at least he could say he ate something. The fact that War had yet to really eat the meal that he really needed was concerning. 

“Mhm.” The other hero still wouldn’t look up from his plate. “It’s… um. It’s still too hot…?”

“It’s still too hot? Like your friend is just your friend , right?” he asked, his voice deadpan. 

War inhaled too quickly and immediately started choking, his face going more than a bit red though it was unclear if that had to do with Warriors’ comment or his sudden lack of air. He watched the man’s eyes go wide as he fought to breathe normally again before War reached for his drink to take a sip and then started nervously rubbing at his throat.

“H- They are my friend,” War croaked out, though he looked less upset about it now than he had last time. He just seemed… uncomfortable, like something was bothering him. “We are friends.”

Warriors simply nodded. He probably wasn’t ever going to get more than that but he didn’t want to keep pushing. It was funny at first but teasing him further would feel wrong. Warriors glanced down at his own plate. Maybe he’s just worried about the food itself. People tried to poison his meals in the past and it was only because he was a vampire that nothing ended up happening to him, much to the confusion of his would be assassins. It was probably likely that War also had assassins after him.

“One thing I forgot to mention is that poisons don’t really work on me,” he said, making sure to keep his voice low. “People have tried in the past but since I’m a vampire, it’s not one of the things that can kill me. I can still taste it though. I know exactly what hemlock tastes like for example, but I just thought we hired a really bad cook at first. I figured it out later when he was so confused as to why I wasn’t dead yet that he confessed to his crime. It’s not exactly a fun discovery, but it is a useful one.” 

“…You what?” War blinked at him in shock, but some of the tension in his shoulders disappeared.

“Four different people tried to poison me with hemlock but it just kind of makes me sleepy,” Warriors answered with a shrug. “I’m pretty good at tasting it now. I can tell who it was because they just look so confused. Sometimes when I taste it, I stay around for longer than needed just to fuck with them.” 

The other hero frowned at him, thinking about what he’d said before glancing down at his mostly untouched food.

“Hemlock is bitter. In my opinion, the food tastes fine,” Warriors said quietly as stuck another carrot into his mouth. 

“Oh.” War looked embarrassed, but he stopped pushing his food around his plate and began actually eating.

Warriors cracked a small smile but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to accidentally upset War when he just convinced the man that the food was safe to eat. Warriors understood why eating food could be difficult because if wasn’t a vampire, he would have died. It wouldn’t have been Cia or Ganondorf that took him out, it would have been hemlock.

Now that he felt more comfortable, War seemed to have no issue with actually eating his food. It didn’t take him long to clear his plate, he was hungry enough to eat everything rather quickly. When he finished, he set his fork down and glanced up at Warriors.

“D’you mind if I order a drink?” He asked.

“No, go ahead,” he mumbled. He doubted the tavern had what he liked so he didn’t really see himself drinking anything during their stay, but he didn’t care if War felt like drinking. The man was an adult, he could do whatever he wanted. 

War wasn’t as nervous to taste his drink as he had been his food. The second he got his whiskey he’d started drinking it, taking a few sips between staring down at the amber liquid. 

“So, what is your friend like? Did you meet them in the army?” he asked, keeping his voice neutral this time. He teased War enough about his “friend” but in all that teasing, he didn’t actually really take everything War said before in. Regardless of what their relationship was like, having a true friend was a challenge when one had to constantly keep an eye out for assassins.

War quickly looked up at him, though his face wasn’t quite so red as it had been all the other times Warriors had brought up his friend. “No, I didn’t meet them in the army actually. H- They were a soldier, fought in the war, but we never really crossed paths until later. They retired due to injury, I didn’t meet them until around a year after the war ended.”

Warriors frowned. “Are they okay? Maybe things were different in your era, but in mine, you had to be quite injured before you were allowed to leave.” 

“He’s doing better now but in the last battle of the war, he broke his spine in more than a few places,” the other hero frowned at his drink. “Explosion caught him and he was far enough away to avoid being badly burned, but the force threw him into a wall. He wouldn’t be walking still if it weren’t for the sheer amount of magic and potions that were used on him, but he deals with chronic pain now. Zelda let him leave because the war was over, he needed time to heal, and he has other duties to attend to.”

Warriors found himself covering the lower half of his face with his hand, trying to hide some of the shock. It was hard for him to imagine a regular person getting back up from that. Maybe he was a vampire long enough to forget how well regular people could heal - he was always so worried about preventing those sorts of injuries in the first place. 

One thing did catch his attention though. “Zelda personally let him go?” 

“Mhm,” War hummed, taking a quick sip before he spoke. “When the war first broke out there were a lot of noblemen who blamed me for all of it, something that made Zelda really upset because she kept insisting it wasn’t my fault, and a lot of them ended up revealing they weren’t the best people. We had a lot of traitors, we’re still trying to weed them all out, but from the beginning there were a handful of noblemen who showed unwavering loyalty. My friend is the son of one of the dukes who has always had Zelda’s back and supported her decisions throughout the war. She knows my friend well, and she has other things she has him do now. But yes, she personally let him go from the army.”

Being blamed for the war was definitely a familiar feeling. “And he fought the whole time until that last battle?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. They had nobles in the army too, but they didn’t fight on the frontlines. They liked to try to influence from behind, running supply chains and trying to have a say in strategic decisions. They didn’t want to risk their lives unless they weren’t in line to inherit their estate. “Most of the nobles in my era were never on the front lines… just the ones who had something to prove to an older sibling.” 

“Most nobles in my era weren’t either,” the other hero huffed. “Most of them are the most self centered, stuck up, horrific people I’ve ever met in my life who’d rather let hundreds of people die for them than take accountability for one single mistake. But Si- My friend isn’t like that. He signed up for the army at around sixteen I think he said, he’d been trained before then I think he always intended to join, and I think he would’ve stayed as a soldier longer had he not been injured and had his father’s health not started to decline.” War frowned as he took another sip. “My friend fights for what he believes in, he doesn’t think his life is worth any more than anyone else’s and he argues a lot with the other noblemen on the council whenever they start spewing bullshit, and some of them really don’t like him for that.”

Why didn’t he get a guy like that in his era? Unless, he did and that person just didn’t survive the war. “I’m glad you have a friend like that,” he said quietly. He couldn’t really say he was close to anyone outside of his brothers and Zelda, Impa, and Proxi. He trusted the other vampires but it wasn’t like they were close friends or anything like that. He found it kind of hard to befriend people when he knew he was going to outlive them all. 

“Me too,” War murmured. “I’m… I’m very lucky to have him. He met me when I was truly at my worst and he’s been incredibly patient with me, I’m glad he stuck around.”

“Does your group know him?” 

“Mask does,” he sighed before letting out a small laugh. “Can’t get anything past him anymore even if I tried, but I managed to convince the others he was a friend from work, and also a woman…? Just so they wouldn’t get on me about it.”

Warriors smirked but hid it behind his hand. “I can’t imagine why you would want to do that.”

War narrowed his eyes at him but there was no real heat in his stare. “He is a friend, seriously. It’s just… also a bit complicated and a lot of a mess, and I don’t want to explain all that to all the others so it was easier to just shut it down. Wind only found out in the first place because the fucker went snooping through my mail and then he went and announced to everyone that I had a girl back home, my friend has a gender neutral name, instead of minding his own business.”

“I would throw my Wind off the mountain if he went through my mail. Hardly any of it gets to me untampered but still,” he mumbled. Unfortunately, most of his mail went through the military and they were known to strike parts of letters out if the information was deemed too sensitive to leave the military. It was annoying but still, he didn’t need anyone else going through his letters. 

“I have no idea how he even read it,” War scoffed, throwing a hand up in the air. “Our written Common doesn’t have the same fucking alphabet! His native language is similar enough to mine that sometimes if we speak slowly we can kinda understand each other, but the written language is different and again my era’s Common doesn’t have the same alphabet as his. I have no clue how the fuck he did it.” The other hero sighed before downing the rest of his drink in one gulp. Then he looked back at Warriors. “Time to head up?”

“Sure,” he mumbled as he grabbed his bag and fished out the key to see what their room number actually was. Thankfully, War didn’t need any help getting up to the stairs and soon enough, they found their room on the second floor. Their room was basic. It had two beds with thick blankets, a window with curtains on the far end of the room, and a night stand with a lantern they could light between the two beds. There was a single painting of the mountain on the wall on the opposite side of the room as the beds and under it was another small table and aside from the blankets, it was the only bit of colour in the room. There was a door that led somewhere else but Warriors guessed that it might have been some sort of bathroom. 

“I’ll take the window bed,” he said as he threw his bag onto the end of it. He figured War wouldn’t want the bed beside the possibly drafty window. The first thing he did was close the curtains, then he got out of his boots and put them at the end of his bed. 

“Works for me,” War shrugged, setting his things down on the foot of the bed closer to the door before unpinning the scarves from around his neck. He set his own on the bed behind him, but he gathered Warriors’s in his arms so it didn’t drag on the floor before handing it over to him. “Are you needing more blood or anything?”

Warriors took the scarf and draped it over the footboard of his bed. War always seemed quick to offer his blood but this time, he actually kind of needed it. He would have been fine if he and War walked to the town or village or whatever they were in, but Warriors used his powers to get him the help he needed faster. It was like he never drank from the dinolfos. Warriors frowned. The raw meat helped but it wasn’t a replacement for blood. 

“I do but… Nevermind. I’ll have a drink.” 

War raised an eyebrow at him as he worked to get his bracer off his right arm, but he didn’t voice whatever question he might’ve had and instead rolled up his sleeve and sat on the edge of Warriors’s bed when he was ready, holding out his arm. Warriors took his wrist and summoned his fangs. He didn’t feel the need to warn War this time since they went through this once already, so he picked a spot without any marks and bit into his wrist. 

Drinking War’s blood on the same day as a monster’s blood almost made it tastier when he had something very recent to compare it to. It was like having dessert after burning supper. He drank until he counted down to zero, then he withdrew his fangs and licked whatever blood pooled until the bleeding slowed down. 

Warriors licked his lips and fangs, then fell backwards onto his bed with his arms folded on top of his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them again and settled on staring at the ceiling.  At least he was going to sleep well tonight. Well, he was going to sleep well in the first place because he was at an inn but had a drink now, courtesy of War. He probably should have told him… but had he not already told him? He should be aware, unless he forgot, and then he wouldn’t be aware. 

“You know I sleep a lot, right?” he asked War. “Like a lot?” 

“Yeah?” The other hero twisted so he could look at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not the only weird one here,” he mumbled from a frown. “But alcohol makes me sleepy. I wanna sleep in tomorrow. We got time, right?” 

War blinked at him in confusion for a moment before he quickly glanced down at his arm and the two puncture marks in it. “You were really being serious about being able to get drunk from people’s blood??”

“You thought I was lying?” Warriors asked with a pout. “Why would I have any reason to lie? I believed everything you said… well, I still don’t think your friend is only your friend but I believe that you believe that.” 

“I didn’t think you were lying,” War laughed, “I just thought you might’ve been pulling my leg or something, or… I don’t know, that you were joking. I have a hard time telling tone sometimes.“

“Well, now you know and now you’re banished from my bed,” Warriors mumbled, lifting a hand to point at the other bed in the room. “That’s where non-believers go!”

The other hero let out a fake scoff of offense, raising a hand to his heart. 

“First you bite me and then you banish me? I’m so hurt!!” War sniffed before he got up and threw himself on the other bed face down. 

“Yes, banished… but I may give you the opportunity to prove yourself later…. Depends on how I feel,” he mumbled slowly, though he couldn’t hold back the giggle that escaped. His body felt heavy now and he had the feeling that he probably felt more drunk than War did, and it was War’s fault! Well, he knew what he was getting into. It was War who didn’t. He laughed again. He told War, it wasn’t his fault War didn’t believe him. He had no right to be surprised. “War, do you even feel drunk?” 

“Nope,” the other hero laughed, flipping over onto his side so he could look at him. “Not even a little bit tipsy.”

“ What ? That is so fucking rude,” Warriors said with a hiss as he reached over for a pillow and threw it into War’s general direction before he realized he needed that later and his body felt so heavy. “Wait, I need that…” 

War giggled at him, but he did throw the pillow back, though it landed directly on top of him.

“This is why you’ve been banished,” Warriors growled as he put his pillow back and slowly pulled his legs up so they were on the bed. He needed to get somewhat comfortable before he fell asleep, but then he remembered something! He kicked his leg out and tried to get up, only to faceplant into the bed. Why did he try to get up again? He didn’t have to sit up to talk to War. “War. I remember something…” 

The other man raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah?”

“Last time… or well, the only other time I got drunk like this, I ended up under Malon’s kitchen table. You shouldn’t let me go under the table. Wild was very mad about it but like… the floor felt really nice, you know?” 

War looked a little more serious as he frowned in concern. “Do I need to worry about you wandering off outside of this room?”

“Maybe! I don’t know. I don’t know why I went under the table the first time. I fell asleep in the bedroom. Also, Twilight drank way, way, way more than you did but he’s a boring drunk. His words, not mine, but I agree with him.” 

“Hm, yeah,” he shrugged. “Whenever I’ve gone drinking with Twi he just goes quiet and then gets overstimulated. Sky on the other hand- Not that he can drink much or often, he’s not really supposed to be drinking at all apparently, I just found out- But gods when he did he was the funniest person alive, I’m convinced. Do my best to stop him now, or just remind him to not have a lot, but I miss him.”

Warriors hid a yawn behind his arm. “Wars… we’ll find them. We’ll both find our stupid brothers. Just not today, I’m sleepy…” he mumbled slowly. 

“Yeah, we will.” War gave him a small crooked smile. “But you get some rest.”

“Okay,” he mumbled as he got himself comfortable underneath the blanket and closed his eyes. “‘Night, War.”

Chapter Text

Once he was sure Warriors was asleep and wasn’t likely to wander off, War left the inn, making sure the door to their room was shut firmly behind him and locked. He couldn’t believe such a small amount of his blood had really been enough to have an effect on the other hero, especially since he hadn’t been feeling much of anything at all. He’d wanted a few more glasses of whiskey, he’d say he more than earned them after all this, but waking up hungover hadn’t sounded too appealing and so he’d simply gone with the one. He knew the more he had the more he was tempted to keep going, and after enough years of just trying anything to ignore his trauma and feel peace for five seconds, he knew he could firmly cut himself off at one with no issue.

Stepping outside into the cold night air reminded him that while they may be out of the mountains, they hadn’t quite made it to the warm weather. He could see his breath in the air in front of him and he wasn’t quite frozen, but he was uncomfortable enough to make him wish he’d still had Warriors’s scarf around his shoulders.

Maybe he should buy a slightly warmer tunic. 

It was late, but not too late that all the shops had closed, and thank the gods for that because War wanted nothing more than to stock up on his medical supplies he’d run out of, and buying a new razor so he could finally fix up his appearance to how he preferred would be wonderful as well. He ended up finding a kind old man running a small supply shop, and hit there first. The man didn’t think twice about selling him as many bandage rolls as he purchased, for which War was grateful, though it made him wonder what other kind of people traveled through if he wasn’t coming off as strange.

“Will that be all for you?” The kind man asked after War had fished the proper amount of rupees out of his wallet and handed them over.

“As far as buying goes, yes,” he smiled politely and grabbed the razor, potions, bandages, and other supplies from the counter. “Though, I was wondering if you could maybe tell me about where I am? My friend and I went on a hike up in the mountains and I’m afraid we got incredibly disoriented.”

“You’re in Hyrule Kingdom,” the shop owner confirmed, which War was glad of, “up in the north west area.”

“Ah,” War nodded, “thank you.”

“Hyrule Castle is a good few day’s journey from here by horse,” the man added. “I wouldn’t recommend walking, not this time of year and not with all the monsters around.”

War frowned at that. “Have there been more than usual?”

“Not really?” He shrugged. “They’re just there , y’know? And they’re strong, do be careful young man.”

“I will,” War smiled again, bowing his head as he wished the old shopkeeper goodbye. “Thank you for your help!”

Another small shop just a few minutes down was selling clothing items, and he happily bought a thicker tunic as well as some gloves that would cover his fingertips. He didn’t own a pair of those so he rationalized his purchase by telling himself that the tunic would be useful to him every time it was cold until the thing wore out, and that his fingers would very much be thanking him for saving them from getting frostbite.

Bidding the kind young woman running that shop a good night, he walked further until he hit a place selling snacks for travelers and restocked his little cashew pouch. War also caved and bought a small bag of dried apricots because they looked so good and the lady behind the counter was very convincing and he knew they’d be good for his blood sugar when it got too low. He was very lucky he’d still had his wallet on him when he’d gotten pulled through that portal.

With snacks on his mind, he caught sight of a small stand selling fish and went over to buy one. Warriors seemed to have quite the interesting appetite given that he’d basically had raw meat for dinner, and while War wasn’t sure if his new friend would also appreciate fish, it was the only kind of meat he saw being sold and he wanted to make sure the other hero could have a snack for the road as well. And if he hated it, War could always cook it so that it wouldn’t go to waste.

Eventually he got too cold to continue strolling the streets, though it was quite relaxing and he would’ve loved to keep going if only it were warmer, and he headed back to the inn. Warriors was still sleeping exactly as he’d left him, and War set his new purchases on the bed he’d picked before grabbing some of the supplies he’d purchased and heading into the small attached bathroom. Washing his face felt quite nice, as did finally getting to shave. He liked feeling more like himself, it was nice being able to feel a little bit confident in his appearance again even if he didn’t have with him his usual makeup he used to cover his freckles and scars.

Oh well, he was almost completely past the point of caring about that. It made him anxious sometimes, feeling so exposed and stared at because he knew eyes would flick to the marks dug across his cheek and the smaller scar on his chin, but Warriors had seemed so over his existence when they first met and had barely looked at him much so War felt safe assuming the other hero wouldn’t give a fuck if he even noticed. 

The scars bothered him far less than his hair, anyway. The moisture in the air from the snow had had it curling back up as if it’d never been straightened at all, which was annoying because it made it harder to manage. He didn’t like how his curls really just stood up wherever they wanted and refused to lay nicely when he didn’t have his good hair products with him to get them to even somewhat behave. Equally as distressing were his dark brown roots, only becoming more and more obvious every day. He’d meant to color them a few days before the portal had taken him and landed him with Warriors but things kept popping up and stopping him, or he’d been too tired, and now there was nothing he could do about it.

He set his hands down on the counter with a very loud sigh. There was nothing he could do about it, so he really should stop fussing about it.

It didn’t take him too much longer to finish getting himself feeling somewhat closer to normal as he got ready for bed. He spared a quick glance at his ribs as he changed into his new tunic and was delighted to discover that they didn’t even hurt when he lightly pressed on them. They’d been healed up quite nicely.

Straightening out his tunic he left the small bathroom and put his things away before he opened the little window in their room and looked up at the stars visible in the only partly cloudy night sky. He wasn’t quite so tired yet, so he might as well make himself useful and look at his star maps and see if he could figure out around when they were before he fell asleep.

“Wake up.” It was a voice Warriors knew but not he could immediately place why he knew it. It was soft and feminine but it wasn’t Zelda’s. He cracked his eyes open and found himself sitting on his knees in a grassy field. A pair of hands lifted his chin up. “Look at what you did.” 

Oh, he remembered that voice now. His aunt. He looked up and found her looking down at him. She was wearing a white blouse stained with red and a long red skirt. Warriors looked enough like his aunt that they used to be mistaken for mother and son, which he supposed only made her resent him even more. Her eyes were more grey than blue but their hair was the same colour of blonde, though her hair was longer and more wavy. He always thought she was pretty, but she got angry whenever anyone called her pretty. After the war, he could better understand why that might have been the case but when he was just a kid, he didn’t understand why. 

“Look at what you did,” she repeated, forcing his head down so that he was looking ahead of him. 

Lying flat on his back in a pool of blood was War. He was facing him, so Warriors could see the blood coating his face, how his skin was devoid of all colour, and his eyes were rolled up into his head. He couldn’t see all of the wound since it was on the opposite side of his neck, but he could see that he was missing part of his neck.

“War…?” 

“You tore his throat out like the monster you are. Though… I suppose you did warn him. It was his fault that he stuck around, isn’t it?” 

“I… didn’t…” 

“But you did. Why is that so odd to you? He’s not the first person you’ve killed like that.” 

War said he would defend himself. He promised. He didn’t know War for long but surely, the man would have defended himself. He had his own people to return to, he wouldn’t break his promise. 

“Warriors?”

“Why do you think I wanted you out of the house so badly? I needed to protect my own children. You would have torn their throats out too if I hadn’t. .” 

“But…” He wouldn’t do that. He was amicable with his cousins. Warriors wouldn’t tear their throats out.

But he did tear out War’s throat and War didn’t deserve that.

“Hey, wake up.”

“You’ve always been a monster, Link.” 

“I didn’t kill him.” 

“What do you call that then?”

Warriors found himself staring at War, hoping that wasn’t something he was missing. Maybe War wasn’t dead. Maybe if he watched closely enough, he would see the man twitch but even with his sharp eyes, he didn’t see anything from War. He was well and truly dead and it was all his fault.

“Link!” 

Warriors’ eyes snapped open and his first instinct was to move away from whatever was touching his arm. He didn’t have a lot of room so he found himself with his back against the headboard and his chest rumbling with a hiss. It took him a second to realize that it was just War, who had a healthy colour to his skin, focused eyes, and not a drop of blood on him. His neck was thankfully whole. “You’re… fine…”

“What happened?” War asked, frowning at him in concern.

Warriors took a deep breath but he felt his eyes sting. “Just a nightmare, thankfully…” Just a nightmare was putting it lightly though. It was something that could happen if he wasn’t careful enough. He could kill War and that was enough to make his chest and face hurt.  He had no idea why his aunt was there but there was once somebody else in War’s spot. He did kill somebody like that even though he didn’t mean to kill anybody like that. Warriors palmed at his eyes, trying to stop them from tearing up. 

Why was he so shaken up? 

“Are you alr-“ The other hero cut himself off, letting out a small sigh before trying again. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“You were dead…. And it was all my fault…” he mumbled, drawing his knees up to his chest so he could hide his face behind them. “Your throat was…” 

“I’m okay,” War assured him. “Nothing’s happened to me, or to you. We’re just at the inn, yeah?”

Warriors looked up from his knees. They were at the inn. He knew that, though War saying it out loud did make it sink in that yes, he was at the inn. He wasn’t in some field with his aunt that he hadn’t seen in five years. War did look fine. Maybe a little tired, but that was a far cry from dead. His chest still felt really tight though and his eyes were still wet. War was fine but he couldn’t get the image out of his head. It was still something that could happen. 

“I tore your throat out. In my dream. You were dead.” 

The other hero blinked at him in shock, wasting just a second before he responded, “You haven’t hurt me, I’m alright.”

“But I could. That could happen. It already happened once,” he mumbled into his knees. 

“I promised you earlier I wouldn’t let that happen, remember?” War’s tone stayed gentle and kind despite what they were talking about.

“I… guess I have a hard time believing that,” Warriors admitted, wrapping his hands around his legs and squeezing them tightly. “My brothers argued with me about it and you seem like you’re just as nice as they are.” 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” War told him, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll just stand here and let you hurt me. I’ll protect myself. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but do you trust I’ll keep my word?”

“I guess you haven’t given me a reason not to,” he said quietly. When he thought about it, he probably trusted War to keep that promise more than he trusted his brothers. He loved them but they were far too nice to him sometimes. He felt like they didn’t listen to him and they were kind of stuck in their current mindset of making sure he didn’t get hurt when he was worried about them . War was kind of like that but there was something different about him that he couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the fact that they both held the same title? 

“Do you want to talk about your nightmare?” War offered, carefully sitting down at the foot of his bed as if he were expecting Warriors to tell him to get off. “You don’t have to, but I’ll listen if you do.”

Warriors frowned and squeezed his legs again, just to keep his hands busy. “You were dead but for some reason, my aunt was there too. I don’t know why, it’s been like five years since she kicked me out and we haven’t spoken since. She kept calling me a monster. I can see now that she couldn't have known about any of that, that I am a vampire and could tear somebody’s throat out, but in the dream, it made sense that she was worried about it. She said I could have done that to my cousins and that’s why she kicked me out. You said I am probably not as monstrous as I think but… my mind keeps coming up with all of these scenarios anyway.” 

“Our minds tend to think the worst of us,” the other hero said quietly. “And I meant what I said. I don’t think you’re the monster you think you are, and your aunt was unkind for kicking you out how she did.”

War hasn’t seen him at his worst, so it was easy for him to say that he wasn’t monstrous but he didn’t say that out loud. He could very well change his mind if he saw what a vampire with no sense could do. The other hero did seem sincere though and Warriors could almost believe him. He was beginning to feel a bit too vulnerable and emotionally raw to answer him, so he glanced at the window his bed was beside. It wasn’t morning yet, but it definitely a lot later than he remembered it being. 

“War, have you been here the whole time?”

“No- I uh… I went around town for a little bit after you fell asleep,” he admitted. “Wanted to stock up on some supplies and also get an idea of where we were. I’ve only been back a few hours.”

“So you have more than cashews now?” Warriors mumbled, hiding his smirk behind his knees. “Did you find out anything useful?” 

“Got cashews and dried fruit,” War snorted. “But also more bandages for my med kit, a decent idea of where we are on the timeline, and directions to Hyrule Castle. And also something for you.” The other man pointed across the room to where he had something packaged quite nicely resting on a small table. “It’s a fish.”

Warriors lifted his head up when War mentioned the package. He got out of bed, located his bag, and looked for anything he could use to store blood. He had the potion bottles but they still had potion in them and he didn’t want the taste of potion to ruin the taste of blood. He found a flask that he had no memory of getting and looked far too fancy to be one he would have picked himself - perhaps it was another surprise from Zelda or Impa. They already snuck in food so a flask wasn’t completely out of the question. He couldn’t really see into it but it looked clean. 

With the flask in hand, he walked over to the package. He could only really smell the fish once he got close so it must have been packaged well. He took the package, sat on the floor, and unwrapped his gift, leaving the packaging under the fish. The only problem with the flask was that it had a narrow opening, so once he cut it open a bit with a fang, he had to awkwardly press the flask against the fish while also holding the fish up to collect blood without getting it all over the floor. 

As he waited for gravity to do what gravity did best, he looked up at War. “Where’s the castle, then? Far away?” 

“Well…” The other hero sighed, rubbing his eye with a fist as he tried to hold back a yawn. “It’s not… close. It’ll take some time to get to assuming we’re able to make good progress and not get caught in anything.”

Warriors rolled his eyes before he went back to focusing on collecting blood from his fish. They were both Heroes, so they were bound to get into more trouble. A smooth journey was simply not possible for them, especially since they already had to stop for monsters twice in the short time they’re known each other. “I don’t need to remind you that we’re not that lucky, right?” 

War let out a short, slightly crazy sounding laugh. “No, no you do not.”

“Did you find out anything else? You said something about looking at the stars.” 

“I did!” The other hero suddenly looked a little more awake, and he pushed himself off of Warriors’s bed so he could scurry over to his things and grab a thick journal that Warriors had seen him writing in before. War then joined him on the floor, sitting with his legs crossed and flipping through the journal with a frown on his face before he found what he was looking for and set the book down in front of him to what looked like a hand drawn map of the sky. “So every single era I’ve been to and visited so far I’ve tried to map out the stars and constellations while I was on watch. Fun thing about stars is they’re not exactly permanent, they can exhaust themselves and run out of fuel and burn out or just collapse on themselves! They can also explode which causes them to appear to shine so brightly that we can sometimes see them during the day.”

Warriors blinked at him. He liked the enthusiasm and the fact that War had interests outside of military life but he had a hard time following. He was sure if he wasn’t busy trying to make sure he didn’t have to lick blood off the floor, he could follow along better. He let him talk as he squeezed his fish, trying to see how much blood it still had. 

“Anyway,” War cleared his throat awkwardly, “stars aren’t permanent. They can also shift around in the sky, they have their own gravitational paths that they follow, but they move quite slowly. In our lifetimes we won’t be able to really notice it, but over hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of years, you can see…” The other man paused so he could point out a constellation on the page that was held open, giving Warriors time to look at it before he flipped to a different page and pointed to the same constellation. “Avis’s eye is the brightest star in the constellation and that’s how you find her in the sky most of the time, but as you can see slowly the stars in her are shifting and a couple of them are gone if you look at her in, say, Wild’s era.” War flipped through some more hand drawn maps to show him the same constellation again but, as he said, with some missing stars and in a slightly different shape. “Fun fact that I learned, she comes from Sky’s loftwing, the constellation does. She was just some loftwing to them in his era, I guess, but over time her myth and her story became his. My sisters told me about her when I was little, it was very cool getting to realize Avis was real and to actually meet her. Her name is Scarlet, she’s cool.”

“Huh, never thought about the fact that there would be constellations that have something to do with our brothers,” he mumbled as he awkwardly set the fish down to close the cap on his flask. When he was sure it wouldn’t leak, he set it down and picked up his fish again, summoning his fangs and biting right into the underside. Raw fish wasn’t his favourite as far as raw things went, and he did prefer them without their scales, but he was too tired and a little too hungover to really care about that. He could bite through the scales just fine like a bigger fish could. He swallowed and looked up at War, expecting him to continue. 

“There are quite a few constellations with myths from them, actually.” The other hero flipped through a few more pages before he froze, shook his head, and flipped back to where he’d opened up his book originally with a small sigh. “I need to stop getting off track. To answer your question: I think we’re somewhere between Twilight’s era and, well… ours. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when we are because when stars shift, it’s only noticeable after hundreds and hundreds of years, but that’s my estimate at least. And judging by the position of Nayru’s star, Hyrule Castle should be south east from here.”

“So we can yell at Twilight for those weird icicle guys. I guess that explains those and the dinolfos. Those ones looked kind of like ours but I don’t think we have the ice guys,” he mumbled as he took another bite of his fish.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen those things before in my life,” War grumbled. “Definitely going to ask Twi about them when I see him.”

“Have you ever gone to a mountain like that in our era? Maybe we do have them and we just… never noticed,” he asked as he swallowed hard. “The temperatures don’t bother me but trudging through the snow isn’t fun.” If only he could figure out how to float. That’s something the other vampires can do.

“Sid- My friend lives in the mountains, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like those fucks while visiting him, but I honestly don’t spend much time outside or go very high up in the mountains because I fucking hate snow,” War grumbled out, crossing his arms over his chest. He opened his mouth to probably keep going on about how much he hated the cold but froze when he noticed the fish in Warriors’s hands. Frowning in confusion, he asked very slowly, “Are you… Are you eating that with the scales on it…?”

“I don’t feel like taking the scales off. I’m tired, kind of hungover, and I just want a snack,” he answered, looking at War in the eyes as he took another bite out of his fish. 

“Y- You could’ve just asked ,” War sounded almost hurt. “I would’ve taken them off for you? That cannot feel good in your mouth- That has to be uncomfortable…”

“Wild’s had me bite stranger things than fish scales,” he said with a shrug. “One time, he had me bite a sword just to see if I could but you know, it tasted kind of like blood so I kept a piece in my mouth after it shattered and Four did not appreciate that. Scales aren’t that bad in comparison. I can bite through them just fine.” 

“What the…?” War blinked at him before he shook his head and his face fell back to a neutral expression and he mumbled to himself, “Y’know what? I can’t judge. I chew my pens and it’s such a problem that Impa has started brushing them with something that tastes awful because she’s worried I’ll break a tooth biting the ends. And I don’t even have an excuse.”

“Sometimes, biting or chewing on something just feels good. It’s soothing. That’s why I have my necklace - Four made it so I could suck on something, and it’s made of iron so it does taste kind of like blood too. Speaking of biting though, I bite in my sleep and Legend woke up with a bunch of shallow bite marks on his neck, so I’m not allowed to sleep beside him anymore since his blood makes me sick.” He went back to taking another bite out of his fish, though he was starting to encounter bone and fins, which he wasn’t quite willing to eat.

“Hylian blood can make you sick?” War raised an eyebrow in concern.

“Yeah, specifically people who are magically inclined… like Zelda having light magic. Even if it’s just in blood, it still harms me. Zelda’s blood burned my tongue. Legend’s blood makes me sick because he’s related to his Zelda. He has just enough light blood in his blood that it doesn’t burn me, so I can drink it without getting burned, but it still makes me throw up if I do.”

“Ah… That makes sense,” the other hero frowned. “Is it just light magic? Or can you not drink from like, Mask too? With him being so… Well, magically weird is a good way to sum it up I think.”

Warriors tilted his head in confusion, frowning as he did so. He didn’t taste anything odd in Time’s blood, nor did he get any odd side effects from it. His blood helped him with his intense hunger, so it was beneficial for him. Honestly, he didn’t know why he didn’t drink from Time more often since Twilight was still on his shit list for passing out on him. He definitely had some magic but Warriors supposed that it wasn’t something that affected his blood, at least not enough for it to affect him. 

“I… what? His blood was fine. Legend’s makes me sick, Hyrule will not let me try his, and the rest are fine. Actually, Wild’s blood tastes slightly different but that’s about it.”

“Huh…” War shrugged, shifting around to lean his back up against the bed he’d picked. “Wild’s blood tasting weird makes sense, he’s… I’m not entirely sure he’s alive, actually.”

First, Time was weird, and now Wild was also weird. Okay, his brothers were also weird, but War’s brothers seemed extra weird. Warriors found himself getting concerned. Was War tired or was his adventure with his brothers somehow extra fucked up? He kind of hoped he was tired and War and his brothers were okay. 

“I mean, he died but he seems plenty alive to me. I’ve had blood from stiff, dead, monsters and his blood doesn’t taste like stale, dead blood. His blood tastes kind of like minty blueberry. Like, blueberry, but it kinda makes your mouth a little cold like mint does. What the fuck is wrong with your Wild? Sorry, that sounds rude but… what?” 

“I don’t know,” War sighed, blinking slowly. “He’s weird, sometimes he doesn’t really breathe. Sometimes his heart doesn’t really beat either. He’s just kinda there doing his own thing and he’s a lil’ messed up, probably. No, definitely, but that’s okay, I still love him even if his eyes are a little freaky and glow.” He paused before clarifying, “Not all the time, only sometimes.”

Warriors couldn’t help but to just stare before he put the fish back down on the wrapper that he kept on the floor so he could hold his head in his hands. His head hurt and he wasn't sure if it was because of the alcohol in War’s blood from earlier or if it was because he couldn’t wrap his head around their conversation. He knew Heroes weren’t exactly normal - adventures kind of just beat any sort of normal they might have had right out of them. His brothers sounded like normal, non-magical people  in comparison to War’s brothers. He felt like he wouldn’t be the weirdest one in the room if he was with War’s brothers. He believed War too. War didn’t seem like a liar. 

He lifted his head and started wrapping up his half-eaten fish, hoping that it would still be good by the time he woke up in the morning. In the very least, he drained some blood from it, so it wasn’t a complete waste if he only ate half of it. When it was wrapped, he stood up and put it back on the table. 

“I think we should just… go to sleep.” 

“Mmm… Yeah,” the other hero mumbled, but he didn’t make an effort to get off the floor.

“Are you just going to sleep on the floor again when there’s a nice bed right there?” He was sure that War didn’t sleep on the bed in the cabin and War didn’t have a bedroll in the cave, so he must have slept on the ground with nothing more than a blanket to cushion himself against the ground. Maybe he liked the floor but Warriors wasn’t immune to joint pain and his back hurt thinking about War sleeping on the floor again. 

War turned his head slowly to look at the bed he’d picked with a frown. “Floor’s gonna hurt my back.”

“Better get up then,” Warriors mumbled, bending down to offer a hand.

War mumbled out something he couldn’t understand, probably some form of ‘Thanks’, and took his hand, letting him pull him to his feet. Keeping his hand on War’s hand, he guided him to his own bed, then returned to his own bed. He figured War could handle the final step of climbing into his bed. If it was one of his brothers, he might have shoved him into the bed since they sometimes manhandled him into a bed, but he wasn’t sure if he was on that sort of level of playful teasing with War. 

“Good night, War,” he mumbled, hoping that he would be free of any sort of dreams when he fell asleep again.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up pretty early in the morning, for him at least. He knew he tended to sleep pretty late when he was renting an inn room, but he also went to bed early so he figured that was what the difference was. War was still in the room and still on his bed, though it took Warriors a second to realize that he was actually awake too. 

He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, only for his face to sting a bit as he did so. He glared at the window and at the light that the curtains didn’t completely block. He supposed it was his fault for being close to the window but Warriors thought he would have been safe if he closed the curtains. It might have been enough if his skin wasn’t more sensitive than usual. 

“Fuck,” he muttered. He just got up and already had things to swear about. 

“You alright?”

Warriors turned to look at him. “Is my face really burnt or just mildly burnt? I thought the curtains would have blocked more sun.” 

War squinted at him, tilting his head to the side. “Uhhh… You do look a little pink, yeah.”

Warriors cursed again and rolled out of bed to go look for his bag. He had some lotion from Zelda and that usually made his burns feel better while he healed and once he found it, he retreated to a darker corner of the room and started applying a thin coat to his face. “Have you gotten food yet?” he asked. 

“No,” the other hero sighed, sitting up and stretching until his back popped. Warriors winced. “I haven’t been awake all that long.” 

“You should probably eat something before we go. I’m going to stay here and finish my fish… and maybe open the window for a little bit.” He was sure he could stomach the fish even if it wasn’t as fresh as it was before, but he didn’t really want the room to smell like fish when they left. That was just rude. 

“You sure?” War asked, pushing himself to his feet with a slight grimace as his spine continued to make cracking sounds. “I could bring you up something if you like?”

“I’m sure. The fish should be enough,” he mumbled. He wasn’t sure if he convinced War that he was definitely happy with the fish because in truth, some bacon sounded wonderful, but he didn’t want to trouble War and he also didn’t waste the fish that War bought. He couldn’t eat on the road when he needed to wear the mask, so… fish it was. Maybe next time they found themselves in a town, he could have some bacon. 

“Alright…” 

The other hero quickly freshened himself up, most of his time spent fussing over his curls and getting them to lay flat which they seem to refuse to do. The longer they’d spent together, the curlier War’s hair had gotten, and getting snowed on and knocked into snow banks certainly hadn’t helped keep it straight. Either he didn’t have whatever he used to straighten his hair with on him or he simply decided he didn’t care because once he was done grumbling and accomplishing close to nothing, War was out the door.

With War gone, Warriors opened the window quickly before going back to the part of the room where there wasn’t a lot of light. He grabbed the wrapped fish, unwrapped it, and bit down. Now that he was more awake and sober, he did spend some time scratching some of the scales off with his extended claws and he also got rid of everything about the fish he had no plans on eating - the fins, bones, and the head. 

Eating a fish with his bare hands made him feel quite uncivilized, more like the monster he sometimes felt like, but it really was the easiest way to eat at the moment so he did his best to shove all of those feelings down. War didn’t seem to care and while he knew some of his brothers would tease him a little, others like Hyrule and Wild would probably join right in. Warriors ended up finishing the fish faster than he expected, and suddenly, he kind of wished that he did ask War to bring up the bacon after all. 

The door opened much sooner than he was expecting it to, and War stepped in with a whole plate of food.

“I know you said you didn’t want any,” the other hero said as he walked over, setting a second plate Warriors hadn’t noticed down on the table between the two beds before carefully nudging some bacon and sausage onto it with a clean fork, “but I brought you some fresh food if you’re still hungry.”

It took more self control than he expected to not rush at the man and hug him. Instead, he wrapped up all the parts of the fish he didn’t want to discard later, closed the window so that War wouldn’t freeze to death, and then grabbed the second plate. He sat down on the floor between the beds, still taking care to stay out of the sun. 

“Thanks… I was hungrier than I expected,” he mumbled before he shoved some bacon into his mouth. How did War even know he wanted bacon? Maybe he just assumed he liked meat since he also got him a fish. “Did I tell you that I liked meat?”

“I don’t think you did,” War admitted, “but I noticed you seem to like it. And also I got down there and smelled the bacon and almost cried, and maybe that’s because I ate too many cashews for too long and Wild never cooks bacon, but I got excited and figured you’d like some too.”

“My Wild doesn’t cook bacon either. I don’t think he really even has bacon to ever cook. He does always set aside raw meat for me to eat but I have to say, raw bacon would not be the same,” he said, then got to work on cleaning off his plate. He needed the bacon more than he thought he did. It really did hit a spot and satisfied a craving he didn’t even know he still had because he figured that the fish would have helped kill any of the vampire cravings. Maybe he wanted bacon just because he wanted bacon.  

“Cooked bacon is better?” War asked, taking a bite of some of the food on his plate. “I mean… It is to me, for sure, but you don’t have an issue with raw meat…? How does that work? If you don’t mind the question.”

“So, being half-vampire means that I can still eat food, and if I eat food, it means I don’t have to drink blood quite as often. Raw meat makes me feel even better than cooked food. If I’m craving blood, raw meat can satisfy the cravings for a bit. It takes the edge off. Food and raw meat doesn’t replace blood of course, but they still help.” 

“Oh interesting,” War hummed. “Should we bring some with us for you? Or am I enough to keep you not hungry?”

“I have some blood from the fish you bought, so I should be alright for a little bit. As long as I don’t go too crazy with my powers, the bacon will help too,” he answered as he stood up and started getting ready while War finished his breakfast. He winced when put the mask on his already slightly burnt face but everything else went on painlessly and quickly. “You ready to go?” 

“Yup!” The other hero nodded, straightening out his tunic before grabbing all his things.

They two of them left together, returning their used plates and key on their way out. Once they were outside, Warriors turned to War and asked, “What direction are we heading in?” 

“South east.” The other hero pointed at a rather large tree some ways away. “Which should be that direction.”

They walked roughly side by side and it wasn’t long before they were back on the road, leaving civilization behind. They were also leaving the mountain behind, which was always a bonus and he hoped for War’s sake that the weather would improve the closer they got to the castle. For now, it was still a little chilly. 

“We might have to camp out on the road,” Warriors said suddenly as the thought entered his mind. They were very lucky with their shelters as of late - a cave that was big for both of them, a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere, and an actual inn. “Surely, we’re not lucky enough to reach another town or village tonight.” 

“Yeah, we’ve been pretty lucky so far in terms of shelter,” War sighed. “My friends and I usually set up camp and take watch in shifts.”

Warriors nodded. “So do mine… but we usually have three shifts where we get breaks and there’s only two of us. That’s functional but not ideal.” What other choice did they have though? It wasn’t like monsters would be nice and just leave them alone because they were tired and sleeping. Somebody had to be on watch. 

“How do we want to split up watch?” the other hero asked. “I personally think it’d be better to get less sleep in one solid chunk than to be switching who’s awake every few hours but that’s just me.”

“I agree. I tend to be more alert at night and sleepier in the morning… as I’m sure you might have noticed,” he mumbled. “It would be easier for me to stay awake and take the first shift. Does that work for you or do you need the first shift?” 

“That’d be alright with me,” War agreed. “I usually tend to wake early anyway.”

“And whoever is sleeping gets the bedroll.”

They travelled for a few hours without any incident. Sometime in the afternoon, they took a quick break where Warriors covered his head with his scarf so he could apply more lotion to his poor face, and ate a quick snack without the mask on. After their break, they travelled until the sun was setting, entertaining themselves with smalltalk as they made themselves a small camp. War got a fire going, Warriors set up the bedroll, and he took out his snack bag to eat some jerky. 

War pulled out more of his damn cashews. Warriors glared at the cashews but he kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t like they had much more than that. Based on what War said earlier, the only other thing he would have was dried fruit, which was more filling but not by much. Their best bet was finding more towns and villages on their way to the castle. 

When the sun was gone and the stars were visible, he found himself looking up at them. 

“You know, I’ve never really considered the stars before. They look nice but I never really gave them much thought.” 

“Really?” War asked. “I used to look at them with my sisters. We’d sneak up on the roof after Ma went to bed, I’m pretty sure she was well aware and just pretended she didn’t know, and I’d sit there and listen to my older sisters tell the stories of the constellations. Then when they decided they were too old, it was up to me to keep the tradition going.”

“Huh, that’s why you like them so much,” he mumbled. He never had anyone that would do that with him. His aunt would never have allowed it, partially because she kept them all in the house at night and even his cousins would have gotten in trouble if they went out on the roof. That was just his childhood though - he could have considered the stars during the war and while travelling with his brothers. He looked at them while he was on watch just to have something to look at but he never really tried to find constellations. “It sounded interesting when you talked about it though.” 

The other hero laughed. “Really? Legend usually tells me to ‘shut the fuck up’.”

“Legend can probably stand to shut the fuck up a little bit, if I’m being honest. I got bored the last time we explored a dungeon because he was one of the ones who couldn’t agree on how to solve a puzzle. It was the first time I got to really explore one because I shattered my legs in the other one and I just wanted to get out of there so badly.” 

“Y- You what??” War gasped in horror, staring at him with wide eyes.

“The floor broke under Four and I went after him. It was a long drop and it wasn’t a soft landing. Four was alright though, that was the important part. Bones heal as well as flesh does, but I couldn’t explore the dungeon,” he explained simply, as if it was something that happened to somebody else. “Are you still surprised by the things I can heal from?” 

“I think I keep temporarily forgetting that you can heal as fast as you do,” War blinked.

“It’s the medic in you. Any injury worries you, doesn’t it?” he asked with a shrug. “Speaking of injuries I've gotten though, I got my arm cut off once and I had full use of it the next day. The only problem was that Legend and Hyrule had to pick stitches out of my arm because I regenerated over them, and every time they stabbed my arm with a needle, I kept regenerating over that.”

“Oh my gods,” War whispered, raising a hand to cover his mouth, staring at him in horror before he let it fall so he could speak again. “But you… you still feel pain, right? That’s not affected at all, you feel pain like I or anyone else would?”

Warriors nodded. “Yeah, I can heal from pretty much anything but until it fully heals, it does hurt. It hurts a lot, actually,” he said with a frown. “As long as the others are safe though… then all that pain is worth it. You’re a medic, think about how those sorts of injuries would affect regular people.” 

The other hero frowned at him. “The pain isn’t healthy for you either.”

“It’s temporary . If any of the others got hurt like I have, that could affect them for the rest of their lives. It’s logical for me to take those bad hits.” 

War didn’t look very happy, he actually looked quite sad, but he didn’t seem to know how to argue with that. “You’re worth more than a shield, you know.”

“You sound like them,” he mumbled. He simply didn’t know what else to say. Warriors wasn’t interested in a deeper conversation about his feelings and he didn’t want War to push him on it. He always thought that his regeneration was a silver lining to all of the danger he posed to everybody around him. His brothers always seemed to hate it when he tried to be realistic with them and he had a feeling War was going to be similar. 

“You must love them a lot if you’re willing to hurt yourself like that for them.”

“I do,” he said quietly. Warriors looked away from him and turned his gaze back up the stars and tried to find anything that looked like a picture. That’s what constellations were, right? 

“You, um,” War cleared his throat. “You good to take watch? I wanna make sure I can get enough sleep so I don’t end up with a headache tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Get some rest.” 

He watched War crawl into the bed roll. Warriors kept his eyes on the sky. 

Warriors was tired, which was to be expected since it was pretty early in the morning and he was packing up his blanket and bedroll. After the two of them ate something - Warriors had to turn around so the sun was on his back in order to eat - they were back on the road. They walked in an awkward silence that Warriors wanted to break, but he didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t also just feel awkward. 

He still felt raw too. He probably wouldn’t be able to make interesting conversation anyway.

They took a break around noon. Warriors lifted his mask to eat some jerky and some of his dried fruit. He also sniffed his flask of blood and capped it again when he was satisfied with the smell. When War was done, the two of them were back on the road, where they travelled for about an hour before Warriors noticed that something in the sky seemed a little hazy. He couldn’t tell for sure without pushing his fangs out, but it was either a weird cloud or smoke. 

“I smell smoke,” War told him, confirming his guess. He was glad somebody didn’t have to wear a mask that made it hard to smell anything. 

“Probably a camp of some sort then, either made by people or by monsters. Should we take a look?” 

“Don’t want to leave monsters running loose this close to a town,” the other hero nodded.

Getting to the campsite meant they had to take a slight detour off the main path they were travelling on and onto a thinner path that ran through a thicket of trees and bushes. If Warriors had to guess, they were travelling on a path created by animals so he had some doubts that people were at the campsite they were looking for. However, he felt like Wild and Hyrule would have taken them through a path like this, so it wasn’t impossible that there were people on at the end. Eventually, the path began to widen and open up more, and Warriors could see something dark moving at the end of the path. 

War took cover behind a tree while Warriors used his powers to jump into it. With his fangs out, he could see that the dark shapes were in fact darknuts walking around the edges of a camp, filled with weird, purple monsters with silver hair and pants in the middle milling around a large campfire. Bokoblins, maybe? He thought they looked kind of familiar but he couldn’t exactly put a finger on it. 

“Twilight’s darknuts. I hate those fuckers,” Warriors said, just loud enough for War to hear him. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever come across them,” the other hero admitted. “They look annoying.”

Warriors huffed. “They are . They become vulnerable when you knock their armour off, but when you do that, they become faster. It’s hard to see but they have two swords - that giant one and a slimmer one. When they decide to sacrifice defense for speed, they will throw that giant sword and attack with the slimmer one while you’re distracted. One is annoying, but I see three… and then we have those purple guys in the middle.” 

“What the fuck, ” War sighed. 

“I don’t think the purple guys are a danger but the darknuts outnumber us and they’re pretty dangerous. It was actually a fight against them where my group found out about my vampire powers because I had to use them to save everybody. I might have to use them here too… Unless you have a trick up your sleeve?”  

“I have my focus spirit and that’s about it,” he admitted, looking down at his boots. “And I put us at a disadvantage because I’ve never fought those things before.”

Warriors nodded as he watched the darknuts walk around the perimeter of the camp. “Does it exhaust you to use it? I think we should ignore the purple ones for now, and…” He paused as he tried to think. No matter how he tried to organize the two of them in his head, there was no way they could cover all three darknuts, and that was assuming the purple ones stayed out of the fight. No matter what, they were outnumbered. “I guess I use my vampires powers and you do whatever you can with focus spirit. How about we focus on one each to start? That’s still really dangerous but I can’t think of anything else.” 

“I wish I had my bow…” War grumbled under his breath before he froze, tilting his chin back up to look at him. “How good is your aim?”

“I’m not Wild but I can hit a target,” he mumbled as he reached for one of the satchels on his belt. He didn’t have all his weapons or tools on him but he did have his bow on him and a few arrows. He didn’t have many arrows though since he wasn’t usually the one shooting anything - Wild was the best archer and Warriors had been comfortable leaving all the shooting up to him. “I don’t have a lot of arrows though.” 

“How many do you have?” The other hero asked. “I have seven daggers, and I’m not a wonderful shot but I’m thinking we take out the bokoblins as quickly and quietly as we can before letting the darknuts see us.”

“Good idea,” he said as he counted his arrows. “I only have five. That gives us twelve tries. That’s more than enough.” 

Warriors shifted his position a bit, making sure he had enough room to move and could still balance on the tree branch. Wild made it look really easy but he managed. He nocked an arrow and pulled the string back. “Ready?” he asked as he glanced down to watch War. 

War pulled a small dagger from his boot and another from a hidden spot in his armor. “Ready.”

Warriors took a deep breath, aimed his arrow, and released it. It found its target, going straight through the neck of what he was now sure was a purple bokoblin. Black blood sprayed out of the wound. “Shit. They’re infected,” he said as he nocked the next arrow and shot down another bokoblin. 

“Damn it,” War cursed, hurling a dagger at a bokoblin and nailing it in the forehead.

The darknuts were definitely beginning to notice too. All three of them were looking in their general direction and one of them was even beginning to walk into their direction. The other two that were still at camp were making it harder for Warriors to see the bokoblins since they seemed to be trying to guard them, but a smarter bokoblin was thankfully still kind of dumb. Warriors shot one that walked out from behind a darknut, hitting it between the eyes. 

There were still three of them to kill but they were still hiding behind the darknuts and Warriors couldn’t line up a shot. War crept past him after quickly grabbing his dagger from the bokoblin he hit, heading through the bushes in an attempt to sneak behind the darknuts without them noticing. He was thankful that he didn’t have to communicate with him, he could just see what needed to be done. 

Warriors put the bow and arrow away, trusting that War could handle the bokoblins, and hopped out of the tree. The darknut continued to approach him but it didn’t pick up its pace at all. He slowly removed his sword from its sheath and put his shield on his arm, then approached the darknut. 

War tightened his grip around the dagger in his hand, carefully moving up behind the closest of the three bokoblins. He wasn’t used to sneaking around like this, he usually relied on his speed to take down a lot of enemies as quickly as possible, but he had no idea how those darknuts worked and he didn’t want to fight a brand new monster while dealing with a swarm as well. And honestly as far as sneaking was going, he was doing pretty well. 

He rustled the grass near him in an attempt to lure the closest monster to him before ducking behind a tree trunk, and to his surprise it worked and the beast walked over towards him curiously. It hadn’t spotted him and that seemed to make it upset because it stomped over, looking around wildly as it swung its club at its side. When it drew close enough, and far enough from the others that War felt sure its friends wouldn’t notice, he threw his dagger as hard as he could at it and fought the urge to cheer when yet again he nailed it right in the forehead, knocking it dead. His aim wasn’t usually this good but if the gods had decided to give him a break then he wasn’t going to question it.

Luring out the second one was just as easy. He crept back towards where the two bokoblins were standing around, stopping to pull his dagger from the dead one’s face, and repeated the same thing he’d done to get the other one to follow him. Though this time, the monster found the corpse of its friend and War had to very quickly slash its throat before it could call out and warn the others. 

In the distance, he could hear the sound of metal clashing against metal. Warriors was probably fighting with one of those darknuts but he couldn’t afford to take his eyes off the task at hand to go see what he was doing. 

Killing the third bokoblin should’ve been the easiest, seeing as it was the only one left, but War had been so focused on keeping himself quiet and watching the monster for signs it’d heard him that he wasn’t fully listening for what might be doing the same to him until it was almost too late.

He heard the clanking of armored feet against hard ground and whipped around fast enough that he was able to see the darknut swing its weapon down at him and move out of the way, though he wasn’t quick enough to avoid the blow entirely. Him leaping to the side had been enough to save him from being chopped in half, but the flat part of the monster’s blade slammed into his bad knee, sending him to the ground with a cry he couldn’t hold back. 

War immediately started scrambling to get up, but his leg was throbbing and it was difficult to get his feet under him and he ended up just flipping onto his back and trying to push himself away before the darknut could swing at him again.

The darknut raised its sword over its head but before it could bring it down, a blur crashed into it, tackling it to the ground with a roll. Warriors was sitting on top of the darknut, using his bare hands to tear its armour off its body. Somehow, he managed to get his hands around its neck. The darknut thrashed and tried to get him off but Warriors stayed until War heard a loud crack and it went limp. 

His breath felt like it’d caught in his throat, the fear from the feeling of a monster getting so close to killing him just now catching up with him in addition to the slight fear of just how strong and powerful the other hero was. Warriors had just snapped a darknut’s neck with his bare hands as if it’d been nothing.

Had the other man just been holding back before? Or had War just not fully realized his strength?

Metal clinked together again as the last darknut approached. Warriors spun his head around to face it and in a split second, he was on his feet with a guttural hiss. He leapt at the final darknut with his right arm outstretched but in a split second, the darknut dropped its larger sword and reached for that other sword that Warriors warned about him earlier. Before War could understand what was happening, there was a severed arm on the ground. Warriors hissed in pain but it didn’t stop him. He still used his other arm to yank some of its armour onto the ground. 

When War’s brain finally caught up with his eyes and he registered that Warriors’s arm had just been sliced off of him and now laid on the fucking ground, he thought he might be ill. 

Warriors kicked the darknuts knee and knocked it over. Instead of continuing to tear away at its armour, he was stomping on it. 

“Warriors??” War tried to push himself up again but when he put pressure on his knee it sent pain shooting up through his hip and he fell down again with a whimper. He needed a healing potion before he got killed.

The other hero didn’t seem to have heard him, he just kept moving even though he was down a limb. Something akin to a smile appeared on his lips when he seemingly gave the darknut a break… only to reposition himself at its neck with his foot raised. War looked away but he heard the crack. 

Something didn’t feel right and a chill ran down his spine.

“Warriors?” he called again, digging through one of the pouches on his belt for a potion. That time, Warriors did respond, or at least he looked at War with his yellow and red eyes. At first, he had a blank look in his eyes but after a moment, Warriors seemed to recognize him and his gaze seemed to soften. He took a deep breath as he looked at their surroundings before his eyes suddenly rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the ground. 

“Shit!”

He ripped the cork out of the potion and downed it as fast as he could, pushing through the pain to get to his feet and run to Warriors as fast as he could. His knee protested by almost completely giving out on him and sending him to the ground, but he managed to stay upright even if he stumbled into a tree. For some reason the bokoblin he’d been trying to kill had been completely oblivious to all its friends being taken out, but War stumbling and crying out had gotten its attention and it wasn’t too pleased when it turned around and found War to be the only one standing.

It raised its club, aiming to beat him back into the ground, and ran towards him, but it barely made it a few steps before War’s dagger found itself stabbed through the monster’s skull. 

He loved that dagger, it’d been a gift from Mask for one of his birthdays during the war and he really didn’t want to forget it, but Warriors was more important than a weapon and the man had just lost a fucking arm . He’d just have to try to remember to grab it before they left. 

War had seen a lot during the war, a lot of horrific injuries and brutal infection. He’d seen things that had caused older, more experienced soldiers to be sick on sight. Severed limbs weren’t new to him, so despite how terrified he’d been and how ill his fear was making him feel, he shoved it all aside and focused on the task at hand. He wasn’t sure if Warriors had mentioned whether or not bleeding out could kill him but that didn’t really matter, he had to assume that it would. He had to calm himself down and immediately get working on saving his new friend. 

First thing he needed to do was find Warriors’s arm, which was thankfully not too difficult. It’d fallen to the ground on the other side of the dead darknut and War carefully picked it up, trying not to let his anxiety fueled nausea take over him again. Normally he would’ve completely forgotten about the arm and spent his efforts trying to stop the bleeding and wrap up what was left of the limb as best as he could, but Warriors had mentioned earlier he’d lost his arm before and used it fine the next day. So, even though he really felt like he had no idea what he was doing, he was going to try to reattach it.

He had to amputate an arm before, how hard could putting one back on be…?

He could do this, everything was fine. Everything was going to be fine.

War took in several deep breaths to keep himself together as he walked over to the other hero and carefully sat down, trying not to aggravate his stupid knee. Warriors looked dead, completely still and lying in a mess of his own blood, but before War even pressed his uncontrollably shaking fingers to the pulse point in his neck to check, he could see the subtle rise and fall of the other hero’s chest to tell him he was still alive.

“Oh thank fuck,” he sighed, setting the arm down next to him, which felt incredibly weird to think about the fact that he was handling his friend’s detached limb.

It was very much weirder that he planned to reattach it.

Crazier that it might work.

War let out a very strange sounding laugh before smacking the heel of his palm into his forehead with a groan as if that was going to get through to his brain that he needed to stop thinking and start doing. He didn’t want to discover if vampires could bleed out and die by watching it happen because he still felt freaked out by how he’d almost let a darknut kill him, and the strange empty way Warriors had stared at him, and also watching his fucking arm fly off. He was better than this, his emotions didn’t usually distract him so much when he needed to save people. What was wrong with him??

He’d anticipated struggling to get Warriors’s tunics and chainmail off of him since the other man was a little bigger and taller than him and was completely unable to help, unconscious as he was, but he’d figured it would at least be easier with only one arm to have to maneuver. The mask, cloak, scarf, and all his gear wasn’t too hard to get off and set aside because Warriors’s entire body weight either wasn’t resting on them or his gear was just easy to slide out from underneath him, but the second War actually had to lift him up, he found himself struggling. It was probably because he was just one person working on his own and also because he was sitting on Warriors’s bad side that made it so difficult for him, but it took a lot of effort to get just one layer off of him and by the time he’d finally gotten the chain mail off, War’s frustration bubbling up inside him made him want to stand up and scream. It was getting difficult for him to keep ignoring how overwhelmed he was by not just the situation at hand, but every little thing around him, and some voice in the back of his mind kept telling him to get up and walk off his nervous energy before he started shaking again but he didn’t have time for that. 

He forced himself to think about how lucky he was that Warriors had passed out in the shade and not out in the sunlight, because he never would’ve been able to carry him out of the sun and the poor man would’ve been horribly burnt as well.

Even though he was out cold, War took care to make sure he wasn’t setting Warriors back down too roughly or moving him around too fast despite the fact that it was genuinely hell on what felt like his entire body to hold him upright for that long and also wrestle fabric off him. He probably could’ve cut off the last shirt, it certainly would’ve been faster, but then he would’ve been the one who had to sew it back up and he already had to sew an arm back on and also a few sleeves.

He was very grateful that he didn’t have to worry too much about infection with Warriors because the second he set him down for the final time and tossed the last shirt to the side, he could get right to attempting to line his arm back up. It’d been cut off right above the elbow and right when War was about to gently push the limb back together, he froze. What if he didn’t angle it quite right and he completely fucked up Warriors’s arm permanently because it had been turned a few degrees and made his life harder and more difficult than it needed to be?

He leaned back as he wiped his bloody hands off on his trousers before blinding pawing at his belt for his medical kit, squinting at how he’d lined the arm up. He… He couldn’t tell if it looked right. 

War glanced down at Warriors’s other arm, which wasn’t very helpful because he stared at it hard enough that that one looked a little weird to him too and he got even more confused and upset about the one that he was supposed to be reattaching. Eventually he forced himself to move forward, because he was going to do everything he could to just make sure Warriors still had two arms by the end of the day and that was really the best he could do.

After rolling up his sleeves, he got his tools ready. He was starting to feel that fake calm he’d felt every time his medic skills were needed to fix friends and soldiers, the kind of calm that left him feeling detached from reality in some ways. It would’ve freaked him out if he’d been able to be freaked out.

It only took him one try to thread the needle, and then he was able to get to work carefully putting Warriors’s arm back on. His hands stayed steady, and usually his stitches were precise and good at holding together flesh and fabric alike, but he knew with his friend’s accelerated healing, the thread would be a pain in the ass to dig out should the arm heal and even if it didn’t heal, so he only did what he felt strictly necessary to keep the arm in place and stop it from rotating. The real things holding Warriors back together were the bandages. War had no intention of letting the other hero sit up or move until he was sure the arm was attaching itself, so he didn’t have to worry too much about gravity just pulling it off. Instead he just had to secure it and create a strong enough pull with tightly stretched bandages to keep the arm firmly pressed against itself so there wasn’t a gap.

In his somewhat numb feeling state he found himself thinking that he wasn’t sure what he’d do with himself if Warriors woke up in a bad mood because one arm was a little longer than the other.

Once he’d finished putting his friend back together he laid Warriors’s scarf over him so the other hero wouldn’t get cold and pushed himself to his feet to go grab his dagger. He felt so weird standing that he barely registered his throbbing knee, he just kept putting one foot in front of the other almost as if he were being controlled by someone else until he’d reached the weapon, and then he made his way right back. He lasted all of two minutes staring off into the distance before the panic threatened to come back, so to distract himself he picked up Warriors’s tunic and put himself to work reattaching that arm too.

Chapter Text

The first thing Warriors was aware of when he woke up was pain. His entire body ached but there was a sharp pain in his arm. That was weird. He couldn’t really remember what he did to it so he didn’t know why it hurt so much. He couldn’t even feel his fingers on that side, just the pain in his biceps. It also took him too long to realize that he wasn’t wearing a shirt nor did he have his mask on his face. He had his scarf laid over him like a blanket so he didn’t feel like he was burning, but where the fuck did his things go? What the fuck happened? He could remember bokoblins and darknuts, then War crying out in pain. 

His mind was just blank after that, kind of like when he lost control. 

“War?” he called out, unable to completely keep the rising panic out of his voice. He had to be okay. He just had to be okay. Warriors wouldn’t forgive himself if he lost control and hurt War. He called out for the other hero again when he didn’t immediately respond. He groaned as he tried to sit up so he could better see what shape he was in.

“Hey, hey.” War appeared hovering over him within seconds, gently pushing him down and stopping him from moving. “No sitting up until I know your arm isn’t going to fall off.”

War… looked alright. Physically at least. He tried to look for injuries on the other man but it was hard to see anything when Warriors’ back was on the ground. “My arm?”

“Darknut sliced it off,” he said quietly, and Warriors realized he’d yet to actually look him in the eyes. There was something off about War. He’d sat back down once he was sure Warriors wasn’t going to try to sit up again and drew his legs to his chest, resting his chin on his knees and staring out across the monster camp they’d both cleared. The other hero had his moments of being oddly silent, as much as he liked to talk about the things he was interested in he was usually content to stay quiet, but this felt weird even for him.

He bit his lips. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly. He wasn’t sure if War was going to be receptive to answering but he figured he could at least try to see if he would humour him. He couldn’t help but to be worried about him, and unless War’s strange behaviour had something to do with what happened when Warriors lost control, then everything that was wrong with himself could wait. War was currently more important to him. 

The other hero was quiet for a little too long before he answered, his voice still softer than normal. “I- I’m fine.”

Warriors frowned and let out a sigh. Okay, War was going to keep his secrets then. Well, he supposed they were still kind of new to each other, even if Warriors thought they were closer than that. 

“Can you get my bag? I have some blood in a flask,” he asked, trying to push away the slight sting he felt. He should focus on making sure he was going to get better if he was going to be of any use to anybody. War might be out of it but he did seem pretty determined to keep him from sitting up, so he was stuck until he got some blood and rest. 

The other hero just nodded and when he handed him his bag, taking care to lay it next to his good arm so he’d be able to reach into it easier, Warriors noticed the slight shaking of his hands. Warriors felt for his flask and took it out but he frowned when he realized he would need help opening it. He couldn’t get the cap off with one arm. 

“Can you open it? And can I sit up just a little bit to drink it?” 

War took the flask from him carefully, staring down at the cap as he worked on it. “I can prop your head up but I don’t want you moving in any way that’s going to pull your arm off the ground and potentially leave it there.”

“That’s fine,” he answered, keeping himself from saying more. He was sure War would not appreciate it if he pointed out that he cared more about that arm than Warriors himself did. War could always try again if his arm did end up falling off for the second time that day, but he supposed that wasn’t exactly a fun time for him. 

The other hero handed him back his flask, making sure he had a good grip on it before carefully lifting his head up and tucking his cloak beneath him to try to make him as comfortable as possible. It was weird that he was being so gentle and so quiet at the same time and this time when he was done helping him he didn’t back so far away, he stayed close. Warriors watched him for a second before he tipped blood in the flask into his mouth. 

It wasn’t the most comfortable way to drink blood but it was a lot better than being completely flat on the ground. Once he drank all the blood he could get out of the flask, he set it down beside him. His eyelids felt heavy again but he resisted the urge to fall asleep right then and there. 

“What happened, exactly? I can’t remember much. I remember fighting the first darknut while you went off to fight those bokoblins but nothing after that.” 

War still wouldn’t look him in the eyes, instead checking on his arm and pulling his scarf back up over him so his good arm wasn’t sticking out from underneath it. “I um… I got two of the bokoblins no problem, and I didn’t realize one of the darknuts had spotted me but it had and it hit me down. I couldn’t get back up, and I think it would’ve killed me if you hadn’t attacked it. And then you lost your arm but you didn’t really let that stop you until you killed the darknut.”

That officially confirmed that he lost control then. Maybe that was why War wouldn’t look at him. He knew he could be a little brutal when he indulged in his instincts, so he couldn’t imagine how terrifying he must have looked when it was his instincts running the show. As much as War reminded him of his brothers, War had never been around him when he was like… that . He shouldn’t expect him to stay calm after seeing what a mindless vampire could do. His brothers knew what to do, even if he disagreed with their methods, but War wouldn’t. 

“What happened after they died?” 

War started breathing a little heavier and he shook his head, letting his hands fall in his lap. “Killed the last bokoblin. Put your arm back on. Been sitting here.”

“Are you scared of me? I lost control, that’s why I can’t remember what happened, but I wouldn’t blame you if you were.” 

“Oh, that’s what that was?” He could see War frown, even if he didn’t tilt his head up, and the other hero was silent for a moment before he must’ve remembered that he’d been asked a question and he added, “No, I’m not afraid of you.”

“That’s it?” Warriors asked, the infliction in his voice raising slightly in annoyance. He didn’t know what was wrong with War, and that being a little annoyed wasn’t going to help, but it felt like War was barely there and War wouldn’t tell him what was wrong. It was obvious he wasn’t fine! “I thought you would have a question at least. You seemed so interested in the rest of the vampire bullshit. What happened to that?”

“I… I’m sorry, I don’t-” The other hero flinched and forced himself to take a deep breath, and it sounded shaky as he exhaled. He watched War seem to struggle to speak, just staring down at his hands as he ran his fingers over the hem of his tunic until he could get himself together enough to say something else. “I am interested.”

“You’re barely present enough to be interested. You said you’re fine but that’s obviously not true. I thought we were at the point where we could talk to each other… Is that not the case?” he asked, his voice shaking slightly. He didn’t know War for long but he thought that after everything they went through, War trusted him. It hurt a little to know that War could be so clearly troubled but still try to pass it off like he was fine . 

War’s breathing started getting faster again and he rested his forehead in his hands, fingers curling in his hair and pulling it tight. “I’m sorry, I am interested.”

“We can talk about the vampire bullshit later…” he said, looking away from War for a brief moment. He could tell he went too far. If he was well enough, he would have gotten up for a walk to cool his head and give War the chance to do the same but he was basically stuck on the ground if he wanted his arm to regenerate. Unless War decided to walk away, then he was stuck with the suffocating tension. “Look, I’m sorry that I went so far but you can’t keep pretending that nothing is wrong right now. I lost my arm, not my eyes.” 

The other hero started to sound like he was gasping for air and he curled in on himself further, loosening the fabric around his throat as he did.

“...War?” he asked gently. He almost sat up to comfort him but then he remembered how War reacted the last time he tried to sit up and thought better of it. The last thing he needed was to stress the man out even more. “War… please just tell me what’s wrong.” 

“I can’t breathe,” he wheezed, his hands starting to tremble where he was gripping his hair. It was a miracle he hadn’t ripped it out with how hard he was pulling on the roots.

“War, look at me. Just copy me, okay?” he said as he started slowing down his own breathing, exaggerating the movement in his chest as he did so. The last time he had to help somebody through a breathing exercise was a long time ago but found that being the one doing the deep breathing was a refreshing change. “Sit down and copy me, War.” 

The other hero finally looked at him and Warriors saw the genuine panic in his eyes, though he was staring at him strangely as if he wasn’t able to properly focus on him. He couldn’t tell if War was even trying to copy him, he was still breathing too fast, but he’d at least made an effort to sit more upright to make it easier for his lungs to get air and he’d released his grip on his hair in favor of anxiously scratching at his forearm.

Warriors kept it up for a couple of more minutes before he started relaxing. He hesitated before saying anything, since it was his annoyance in the first place that sent War over the edge. If he kept his mouth shut or just went back to sleep to let his arm heal, War might have been able to work out whatever was wrong with him on his own. 

“War, I’m sorry.” 

He hadn’t really noticed before how pale War had gotten since he’d been avoiding looking at him, but it was much more obvious now that the color had returned to his face just how off he’d looked a moment ago. The other hero’s hands still trembled slightly but he was breathing much better now, and there was only a second of silence that passed before he was able to answer him.

“It’s okay, you don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“I could have controlled my tone better…” he mumbled. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

“I let that darknut sneak up on me,” War said very softly, “and you got hurt again because of it.”

“I don’t remember how I got hurt, and not being able to remember is probably why I got hurt. Besides, even if you did notice, you might have still struggled since you never faced them before. I might have still gotten hurt anyway because I don’t regret getting hurt like this. I’d do it again,” he answered before realizing that his words might not have been what War wanted to hear. He didn’t seem too happy about Warriors getting hurt when they talked about it the night before. 

“I should’ve noticed it,” War shook his head, his breathing starting to get faster again. “I should’ve noticed it, things aren’t supposed to sneak up on me like that, I’m supposed to notice them.”

“War,” he started. “They were infected and there was a lot going on. It was two of us and ten of them. We can’t notice everything when we’re outnumbered. It’s okay to rely on allies, you know. You have your brothers, your friend, Zelda and Impa, and right now, you have me and my stupidly sturdy body.” 

He almost laughed at himself. If Legend heard him say that, he would laugh at him and call him a hypocrite. Warriors supposed he needed to hear it too.  

“Your arm’s only still on ‘cause I know medical shit,” War grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. He genuinely looked like he might cry.

“It’s theoretically possible for it to just grow back. I haven’t been keen on trying it out but my body should go back to the point where I was cursed and I had two arms back then! Speaking of my arm though, do we still have potions? It might help.” 

The other man frowned at him and Warriors could see the tears well up in his eyes, but he dug through his supplies to get him a healing potion and even uncorked it for him before handing it over. Warriors took it with his left arm and drank about half of what was in the bottle before setting it down beside him. There was a strange itch in his other arm that made him wince but he resisted the urge to scratch at it and ruin War’s work. 

“War, I meant what I said earlier about how I should have watched my tone. I was annoyed because I was worried, but I’m not upset with you and I’m grateful that you keep patching me up.” 

“It’s really the least I can do since I haven’t been very helpful otherwise,” he laughed dryly, rubbing at his eyes. “I’m just glad you aren’t dead and that you didn’t bleed to death or something because I was so slow getting your arm back on.”

“You’ve been helpful! You saved me from the dinolfos when I was distracted and you came up with the plan to take most of those bokoblins down before we got into real trouble. You also went shopping because I was too tired and drunk to do that…” he said with a laugh. He turned his head to look at the injured arm and tried to flex his fingers. He couldn’t really move his fingers but he could feel them - sort of. Instead of the nothing he felt earlier, his entire arm just kind of tingly like he fell asleep with it trapped under his body. It was rather uncomfortable but he tried his best to just ignore it. “Where are we going tonight? We can’t camp here.” 

“I don’t know,” War mumbled. “I want to get out of here, but you need to heal and we have no idea how far the next town is.”

Warriors couldn’t exactly disagree. He made a little progress if he could feel the tingling in his arm but he didn’t want to lose any progress if it arm wasn’t really attached to his body at the moment. There was a chance that only the nerves in his arm regenerated and none of the flesh or bone did. 

“How many stitches did you use?” he asked. 

“I wasn’t really counting,” the other man admitted, “I was just mainly trying to prevent your arm from turning or coming off again. I also didn’t want you to heal over them or something.”

Warriors was a little surprised he remembered that. Regardless though, it sounded like he used the bare minimum, which would explain why War didn’t want him to move it. “I’m alright with you adding more stitches, whatever gets us out of here faster. We would just have to watch them and take them out before I regenerate over them.” 

War frowned, seeming like he wanted to argue against it, but he must’ve really wanted to move on because all he said was, “It’s going to hurt to add more and you’re going to have to be incredibly careful with it while you’re walking.”

“I will do my best! And maybe a sling wouldn’t hurt,” he said as he poked at his bad arm with his good arm to test the sensation more. The pins and needles feeling was definitely still there, and it felt sharp where he poked it. “There is some feeling in there. I can’t really move my fingers but I can feel it when I poke it.” 

“I should probably get to work then before you get too much feeling back.”

War carefully unwrapped his arm, lifting him up slightly so he could undo the part he’d secured around his chest and shoulder, and his frown deepened as he stared at the injury. He was kind of surprised by how few stitches War ended up using but he wasn’t surprised by the rest of it. It was a clean cut, which he was grateful for, but he was disappointed that it didn’t look like it was attached to his body at all. He could feel the part that didn’t look attached but he could understand why War was so anxious about him sitting up.  

“Can I have you drink the rest of the healing potion before I work on this?” War asked, pulling out his tools from his medical kit. Warriors simply nodded and grabbed the uncapped bottle he set down before with his good arm. He didn’t really see the purpose but didn’t want to cause anymore problems for War. He could string a sentence together again but Warriors was still worried about him. When he was done, he put the bottle back down. 

War’s hands were perfectly steady as he threaded his needle, which was reassuring to see after how they’d been shaking, and he apologized and gave him a little warning before he touched his arm and got started. Warriors winced and took a deep breath, but he stayed as still as possible. 

“Sorry,” the other hero sighed as he very carefully moved his arm to get a better angle.

“It’s fine. I suggested it.” 

War was quick at least and his work was very neat. His speed wasn’t the result of reckless desperation to finish as soon as possible, but rather just from the fact that he seemed very experienced and well skilled. When he finished, he didn’t slice the thread as close to the knot as he had previously, instead leaving it a bit longer and mumbling something about how it’d make it easier to find in case Warriors healed over the stitches. The other man was very focused on his work, and Warriors couldn’t tell if he was talking to him or himself as he went through what he was doing out loud as he bandaged him back up. It was interesting how well he was able to not just protect the wound but also secure his arm, wrapping bandages across his chest and around his opposite shoulder to reduce strain on the limb where it still wasn’t properly attached to itself, even before he attempted to create a proper sling.

Warriors didn’t say it out loud, just in case he broke the other man’s focus, but couldn’t help but to think about the difficulty of putting all of his gear and clothes back on. He wasn’t conscious of his decision to save War and he certainly didn’t regret it, but he felt a little bad for making the other hero work so much. He fixed his arm twice and then he was probably going to have to get him up and get dressed. 

It made him miss Time - there was something about Time helping him with the aftermath of vampire bullshit that just felt more comforting. War was doing great for somebody who only very recently learned what a vampire was but Time was just different. 

“Hmmm… I don’t want you getting up before I make a sling for your arm,” War said slowly, glaring down at the injury as he thought about what to do next, “but that would make it quite difficult for you to get dressed.”

“I would need help getting dressed regardless. I would like the sling over my clothes but honestly, I’ll be fine with whatever you think is best.” 

“Do you think we should even try to put that arm through a sleeve?” the other hero asked.

He shook his head. If he wanted the sling over his clothes, his arm would need to go through a sleeve and his arm hurt enough with War being as gentle as he possibly could be. “When you put it that way, then no. We’ll put clothes on top.” 

“So sling first, then clothes?” War checked with him.

Warriors nodded. It wasn’t what he would have liked but he could live with it. He would rather have his arm sit awkwardly under his clothes than fight to get his arm in and out of the sleeves. 

“Okay,” War sighed, pausing for a moment as he considered the best way to do this. “I’m going to lift your arm up and bend it, and then I’m going to have you hold on to it so I can help you sit up, okay?”

He nodded again, and the other hero picked his arm up, trying his best to support it properly so it didn’t come off.

“I want you to take your palm and hold your elbow like this,” War trailed off as he moved Warriors’s good arm to do what he wanted him to do, “and I need you to just hold that firmly and push up a little if you can. And then I’m just going to…” He moved Warriors’s bad hand so that the forearm of his recently attached arm was supported by the one that had not been disconnected from his body, making his arms look like they were crossed. Warriors winced again as his bad arm was repositioned but he just let out another deep breath through his mouth to push through it. “And I need you to hold that and not drop it.”

“Got it,” he mumbled. Watching War work made Warriors wonder how often he took care of wounds that were similar since he seemed so practiced. He could understand why he was doing everything he did, but Warriors wasn’t sure if he could be as confident under pressure since he only had the basics under his belt. Maybe he wasn’t busy sticking arms back on but Warriors guessed he was probably more familiar with broken bones. “Do you have your patients do this often?” he asked with a tilt of his head. 

The other hero let out a small laugh. “Well, this is certainly the first time I’ve ever reattached an arm, but I’ve dealt with a lot that have been broken or dislocated.” He paused to give him a quick warning, “This isn’t going to feel nice,” before he carefully got his arms far enough under Warriors to help pull him into a sitting position.

Warriors gasped, then bit his lips. “You were right, that was not nice,” he grumbled. It did feel good to finally sit up though. “So… how does it feel to work on a half-vampire? My brothers still act like I’m a regular person sometimes, but other times they’ll just cover the wound, shove blood down my throat, tuck me in, then leave me alone for a while to sleep.”

“It’s different for sure,” War admitted, keeping one hand on him to hold him steady while he grabbed his roll of bandages with the other, “and I don’t mean that in a bad way or something. I’m very grateful you’re so resistant to infection or else this could’ve ended very poorly for you, and it’s rather nice that I don’t have to worry too much about you bleeding out since you do heal so quickly.”

“I don’t think I can die of blood loss anyway. My body has always slowed or stopped the bleeding pretty quickly,” he said, awkwardly shrugging with the side of his body that War wasn’t working on. “I don’t know what would happen if I ever ran out of blood but if it could kill me, the other vampires would have said so.”

“Well, don’t go trying to find out what does happen because it probably sucks and I imagine you’d feel like shit,” War grumbled and moved Warriors’s good arm away when he thought the bad one was secured properly, though he kept fiddling with the sling. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t test everything. We aren’t testing to see if I can regrow a limb, after all,” Warriors muttered. He glanced down at the sling as War fiddled with it. “Are we good? I would like to get going before I fall asleep.” 

The other man glared at his arm, double checking everything to make sure it was really secure before he nodded and wordlessly helped him pull his shirt over his head and get his good arm through it.

“No chain mail?” War asked, though it didn’t seem a question so much as him informing Warriors that putting on chain mail would be a gods awful idea but making it sound nicer, like Warriors had an option to choose it.

“No, no chain mail. I think I only need the shirt and tunic.” Warriors looked down at the scarf, thinking about whether or not he wanted to wear it. It meant a lot to him but at the same time, it was one more thing that War had to help him with and he was beginning to get annoyed at the fact that he needed this sort of help. They could have been back on the road a long time ago if he didn’t lose control. 

War just nodded again, and helped him pull on the rest of what he needed, then helped him to his feet. He’d seemed much more present when he’d been talking or working on his arm, but now the other hero seemed almost distracted. It wasn’t quite like earlier when he’d had that empty look in his eyes, but it felt like War was almost more focused on listening to their surroundings and trying to pay attention to as many things as possible to such a point that it made him unable to truly focus on anything.

They had to backtrack to find the main road again. They walked in silence, since War was distracted and Warriors was beginning to get really tired. When he thought about it, he was surprised that he was still awake. Usually, he would have fallen asleep as soon as he had some blood but the fact that he didn’t was starting to catch up with him. All Warriors could really do was to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 

He didn’t know how much time passed when he heard something that made him lift his head. He could hear hooves. When Warriors looked back, he could see a horse drawn wagon being driven by two women. He stayed where he was, watching as the wagon stopped beside them. 

“You two heading to town?” one of the women asked. “We can give you a ride. We’re going to pick something up and you two look… kind of…” 

“Rough,” the other woman answered. “You two look like wet cats.” 

“Shhh, be nice!”  

War stood very stiffly beside him, arms wrapped around his middle, and he kept his mouth shut.

Warriors looked between them and War, then nodded. “We would appreciate it,” he answered as he headed to the back of the wagon. He managed to find something to grab with his good arm, then he used the small step on the back of the wagon to pull himself up. It took him a second to figure out how to fall forward into the wagon so he could get in it without falling off of the wagon but once he did, he grabbed the side of it to pull himself forward to make room for War. 

The other hero climbed in quickly behind him, wrapping his scarf around himself and sitting as far to the side as possible to give Warriors more room. Warriors stretched out his legs as much as he could, then he used his good arm as a pillow as the two women urged their horses on. 

He didn’t realize he nodded off until War was shaking his leg. He blinked at the other man until he remembered that they were riding in a wagon on the way to a town. Warriors managed to sit up on his own and he took a moment to look around. They were completely surrounded by buildings, some looking to be homes and others looking to be large businesses with people constantly entering and exiting them. They were also surrounded by people talking amongst themselves or walking around the wagon to go on with their day. He had no idea how the two women managed to squeeze their horses and wagon inside. 

“Thanks again for the ride,” Warriors mumbled as he fished out his wallet and handed them a few purple rupees. One of them looked strangely alarmed at his offering while the other woman, the one who said they looked like wet cats, took them with no problems. 

Getting off the wagon wasn’t as hard as getting on in the first place - he sort of just slid off of it and landed on his feet. He waited for a second for War to jump down and once they were both on the ground, they started looking for the inn. This time, Warriors knew to look for a moon on a sign and while the town they were now in was bigger than the other, they found it easily enough. The inn happened to be one of the biggest buildings in town. 

Warriors fought to stay awake as they paid for a single room with two beds and dragged themselves up to the stairs to their room. Warriors took his boots and mask off and collapsed into the first bed he found, groaning when he landed on his bad arm. 

“Should I take the stitches out?” War asked quietly after he’d sat down on his bed.

“Probably,” he mumbled into the pillow. The pillow was nice and he didn’t want to move but he forced himself to roll over so he was on his back.

“I’m assuming you need help with your tunic again?” 

He frowned. “I don’t want to get up but yes,” he answered. He knew he had to get it over with if he didn’t want to get stabbed in the arm a bunch of times to dig for the stitches. He hated that the first time around and Warriors didn’t want a repeat. 

War was at least quick. It didn’t take him long to gently remove his tunic or undo the sling and bandages, despite how long he’d spent putting them in place, and the stitches weren’t too hard to get out either. 

“Sorry if this hurts,” the other hero whispered before gently touching the skin around the wound, far enough away that it didn’t feel like he was sticking his fingers in it, but close enough to probably try to see how deep the cut looked. Warriors hissed in pain. He couldn’t feel too much of his arm before but he could definitely feel it now. 

He watched War carefully grab his bad hand and lightly squeeze it. “Can you feel that?”

“Yeah,” he answered, taking a moment to try and wiggle his fingers under War’s hand. All of War’s hard work before definitely paid off now - he could move his fingers. He felt War’s hand and he could move his fingers. Everything hurt and ached and he had a lot of healing left to do, but even he was impressed with how well his arm healed in the short time that it did. 

“Oh good, I was going to ask you to try to move your fingers next,” the other hero sighed. “Did it take a whole lot of effort to do?”

Warriors glared at him but shook his head. “No, not a lot. It hurts but it wasn’t hard to do.” 

War looked a little upset at his reaction to the question, but he didn’t say anything about it. He just nodded and grabbed his roll of bandages to wrap the wound with, only covering the actual injury, satisfied that Warriors’s arm seemed well attached enough.

“Thanks again for patching me up,” Warriors said quietly as he pulled up the blanket to cover himself. Once his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep. 

War didn’t wait for much of a reaction from Warriors after he’d wrapped up his arm, immediately going to set the rest of the bandage roll on the small table nearby before practically throwing his body on the second bed. He heard the other hero’s mumbled thanks as he hit the mattress, and he just hummed in acknowledgment as he curled up facing the wall, worried his voice would shake if he dared to try to speak. He was so overwhelmed by everything that he was scared he’d start crying, and he really didn’t want to, but he didn’t know how else the ball of emotions that felt like it was about to blow up in his chest would resolve itself because he didn’t think he had any other outlet for it.

He missed Time, he didn’t know what to do with himself and his little brother was always good at helping him calm down when he was hyper aware of every little thing and desperate for his thoughts to shut up for five minutes. The feeling of his chain mail digging into his hip might’ve been more overwhelming if it was the only thing bothering him but with how his mind kept screaming at him for fucking up, telling him how irritated Warriors must be with him, and how he could hear a fly buzzing around as well as footsteps and voices below him, the pain was a distraction from how all the noise made his skin feel like it was burning. 

He was struggling to keep his breathing even and that was just making him feel worse because the dizzier he got the more scared he felt, and eventually he just reached a breaking point where he scrambled into a sitting position, tearing his belt and outer tunic off so he could wiggle out of his chain mail and dump it on the floor, just so he could feel like he could breathe.

Today had been too much, and he felt absolutely fucking stupid for falling apart because he’d dealt with and seen so much worse, but he had no control of how ill his stress was making him feel and he found he couldn’t keep himself from really crying anymore. He’d seen worse injuries before, and while holding someone's severed arm had been upsetting it wasn’t even the first time that had happened, but he’d never reattached an arm before and that had been new and stressful. Not to mention how annoyed Warriors had seemed, which was so completely fair because War could only imagine the amount of pain the other hero was in, but he had so many other things on his mind that with everything all stacked up he just hadn’t been able to handle it properly.

Everything felt so out of sorts, everything was so different. And it wasn’t that he was having a bad time traveling with Warriors, apart from all the times he and the other man found themselves in real trouble. He quite liked the other hero, he enjoyed his company, but he felt like such a bother sometimes and it was difficult learning to read a new person. With the added stress of being torn away from his brothers unexpectedly, the itchy anxiousness he’d been able to shove down for so long refused to continue to be contained. It was hard for anything to be reliable on the road, and he did like adventuring, but he was missing the familiarity of people he knew and the comfort of a routine he couldn’t follow because he didn’t have his things with him.

His friends had all his shit, and he was just lucky he still had his scarf because cold aside he didn’t think he’d be able to handle being in a new place without it there to bring him comfort. He felt so stupid for getting so upset, and he hated himself for actually crying over everything, but he was just so overstimulated he didn’t know what to do. He felt so useless, and he didn’t know when the guilt that he’d done this to Warriors would leave him alone but he really wished it would because it was starting to make him feel sick. What kind of hero was he that he’d gotten so distracted that someone else had been forced to take such a hit for him just to save his life?

It must’ve been hours that he sat there, tears running down his face as he hugged his knees and tried to get out of the downward spiral his thoughts were hellbent on staying in. His knee still ached, but he didn’t have the energy to get up and take a sip of potion to fix it, he wasn’t even sure he really wanted to. It’d be a waste of supplies to fix something that only bothered him a little when Warriors needed his whole arm to reattach itself.

His brothers would’ve called him stupid for thinking like that, but they weren’t here right now so War gently lowered himself down so he could curl up facing the wall. It was no doubt close to morning, and knowing himself if he tried to sleep now he wouldn’t wake up early enough tomorrow to be helpful, so he decided he’d just stay up all night but that was much more difficult than he’d thought it would be because his eyelids grew so heavy. The strain it took to keep them open caused his eyes to cross, and eventually he just gave up and let them close, feeling some of the tension in his body disappear when his eyes stopped feeling like they were burning. 

Maybe sleep would do him some good… He didn’t want to make Warriors upset with him again because he was incapable of acting like himself, and he’d only keep feeling like shit if he forced himself to stay awake longer and prevented himself from resting. His last thought before he gave up and let himself drift off was a hope that Warriors wouldn’t be too upset with him if he ended up oversleeping.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up on his side and buried his blankets. It was a little annoying to have to dig himself out but he didn’t wake up with any burns, so that was a bonus. He tested his arm and satisfied that it seemed completely attached and painless, he slowly got out of bed, grabbed his bloodied clothing and headed to the attached bathroom to do his best to wash out all the bloodstains. He didn’t have everything he usually used to get blood out but he felt like he needed to try something .

When he figured that he did the best that he could for the stains, Warriors draped everything over the footboard of his bed to dry a bit before he headed out. He quickly checked on War, who was still curled up and facing the wall, then hid in the dark corner of the room to eat some of his snacks while he waited for his clothes to dry. 

War was still asleep when Warriors figured that the shirt and cloak were dry enough to wear. It wasn’t the most comfortable to wear damp clothing but he didn’t have anything else to wear since he didn’t think he would be away from his brothers for so long. He put his boots on, grabbed his bag and mask, then headed downstairs. 

“Oh, you’re the one who had the bad arm yesterday!” somebody said as he neared the front door. He turned around to find a kind looking couple at the front desk. They were both on the shorter end and going grey, but they had deep smile lines and a soft expression. Warriors couldn’t really remember them since he was so tired the previous day, but they must have been there yesterday too if they knew about his arm. 

“Oh, yeah, nothing that a potion and some sleep couldn’t fix,” he answered with a smile. 

“Will you and your friend be down for dinner? There’s also a bathhouse across the street. My sister owns it and I can’t recommend it enough,” the man added. “Nothing will heal a person like a warm meal and a nice bath after.” 

“A bathhouse…” Warriors whispered to himself. It sounded like the goddesses knew they were being too harsh lately and decided to give them another break. If he wasn't standing in front of people, he probably would have cried. “That sounds divine…” 

“We’ll knock when dinner is ready! The bathhouse is open late so you can spend a few hours relaxing after dinner. We would have told you last night, but we wanted to leave you two alone last night since you looked so rough…” the lady said. 

“Yeah, I didn’t stay awake for long anyway,” he admitted. He also didn’t know how War would have handled it last night with how distant he seemed. He wasn’t even sure War was feeling better today but he would drag him to dinner and the bathhouse by his ankles if he had to. “A knock would be appreciated.” 

The two of them nodded and waved as he left. Warriors quickly put the mask on his face, noted where the bathhouse was, then started exploring. He didn’t really have a destination in mind. He wanted to stock up on more arrows but he was also craving some fresh fruit after spending so much time on the road with just dried fruit. He also couldn’t really go wrong with more potions because anything he didn’t use on his journey with War could be used for his brothers when he finally reunited with them. Maybe he could also grab a souvenir so they had something to remember each other by. 

He first found a shop that seemed to be dedicated to combat as it sold potions, weapons, armour, and everything they needed to maintain those. Warriors could have easily spent all day in there checking out everything that the shop had to offer but he controlled himself. He stocked up on arrows, potions, some polish for his sword, a cloth to use just for the polish, and some extra chain mail rings to fix his chain mail with since it still had a hole in it from when he got impaled on the mountain. He knew how to repair it, he just didn’t have the replacement rings to do so. 

After that, he found a jewellery store. Warriors wasn’t sure if that would be the best place to look for a souvenir but he figured he could give it a chance. He immediately felt out of place with the bloodstains that he couldn’t quite get out of his clothes but he was left alone to browse the pieces. There were a bunch of pieces with finely cut gems but there were also a bunch of plainer pieces that were only metal. He didn’t think War was the kind of person to wear a lot of things with precious gems in them, and part of that was the reality of their job, so he kept away from those. 

After about ten minutes of browsing, Warriors found the perfect thing and nearly burst out laughing as soon as he saw it. They were two gold necklaces on two separate and simple chains, but the charms were half a heart that formed a whole heart when put together. There was some writing on each heart but he could only decipher the word ‘best’ on one of them. He could only guess that the other said ‘friends’. It was incredibly cheesy and childish, probably something meant for children to buy for their best friends, but it might get a smile out of War and it was cheap enough to try. The shopkeeper must have seen everything because they didn’t even raise an eyebrow. They simply accepted his rupees and wrapped it up for him. 

The last thing Warriors was on the look out for was fresh fruit. He didn’t know if the fresh fruit was possible so he tried not to get his hopes up too much. The temperature was warmer where they were at, compared to the previous town, but he didn’t know enough about growing anything to know if the change in temperature was enough. Maybe they grew things indoors? Maybe they shipped from somewhere else? Eventually, he found a shop selling food and wandered inside. 

To his delight, there was fruit! The best part was that there were oranges . He didn’t forget that War said that oranges were his favourite fruit, so he grabbed as many as he could. When one of the workers saw him, they offered him a crate to borrow. He put a small watermelon in, some apples, oranges, and some plums. Warriors paid and promised to bring the crate back as soon as he could. It was too heavy on his reattached arm, so he had to carry it on his good arm and just use the bad arm to support the crate from the top. 

He headed back to the inn and dropped off everything, leaving the fruit on his bed. He spared War a glance. War had yet to move from where Warriors last saw him. Was this what it was like with him and his brothers? Were they also really worried about him when he was sleeping in one spot for so long? 

He returned the crate and then came back to their room, this time with a borrowed cutting board and knife from the innkeepers for the watermelon. Warriors set those on the table and found himself hovering at War’s bed, debating on how he should wake him up. It was about noon now and he figured that War should probably wake up and eat something. He didn’t know when he went to sleep but if War’s last meal was with him, then that was a small snack for lunch the previous day.

“Hey, War. It’s time to wake up. I found oranges!” 

The other hero made a small grumbling sound and curled in tighter on himself. 

“War. Link. We have oranges.” This time, he raised his voice a bit. He didn’t want to touch War if he could help it because he had no idea how he would react to that. Was this what his brothers dealt with when he was sleeping? 

No, he had to be way worse. No wonder why they just let him sleep.

War slowly uncurled, stretching out his legs as he turned his head to slowly blink at him. He looked a bit pale and out of it, but the latter could be because he’d just opened his eyes and was still waking up.

“Orange?” he asked, quickly grabbing one from his bed and holding it out for War to grab. 

The other man stared at him for a second before his brain caught up with what was in front of him and he gently grabbed the orange. “Thanks.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked as made sure the cutting board wouldn’t fall off the table if he applied some pressure. He grabbed the small watermelon and the knife and got to work. He never cut a watermelon before but he watched Wild do it before, so how hard could it possibly be? 

“I’m not sure, ‘m a little dizzy,” War mumbled, struggling for a second to peel his orange before he was able to get his nail in it. He was also struggling to keep himself propped up on an elbow and open the fruit at the same time so he flopped back down with a small ‘ oof’ to keep working on it. 

“I spoke to the innkeepers this morning,” Warriors started as continued to cut the watermelon, this time cutting triangles into what he sliced before. “They said they’ll knock when dinner is ready and then after that, there’s a bathhouse just across the street. I think we could both use an evening to relax a bit after… all that.” 

War looked a little more awake at that and popped an orange slice into his mouth after he whispered, “Bathhouse??”

“Yeah! They said they would have told us about last night but we looked like shit so they left us alone. They didn’t use the word ‘shit’, of course. Anyway, they should be open late, so once we have dinner, then we can relax for a few hours. I don’t know about you, but I feel like a warm bath is what we need after spending all that time out in the snow…” Warriors paused. How long ago was that? Three nights? Four? It was starting to feel like it was blurring together. The mountain felt so long ago but it wasn’t even a week. 

The other hero nodded, eating another orange slice and closing his eyes for a moment. “Being warm would be nice.”

Warriors finished cutting up what he could of the watermelon. He wasn’t as neat as Wild was but he didn’t think it looked too bad for his first time cutting a watermelon. “You always want to be warm,” Warriors mumbled as he took a slice of watermelon. “I’m just looking forward to a normal bath. I feel like I’m still covered in my own blood.” 

“Hm, yeah, that’s not very pleasant,” War muttered. “Arm feel okay?”

“I can’t do any heavy lifting with it but otherwise, yes,” Warriors answered, holding his arm and wiggling all of his fingers for War to see. “Wait, I didn’t pick up anything with blood when I was in the market. I bought a cheesy souvenir for us but I didn’t get any blood.” 

“You can have some of mine if you…” The other hero started to say before he fully registered what all Warriors had said and he opened his eyes as he very softly added, “You what?”

Warriors didn’t say anything and instead grabbed his bag, pulling out the wrapped up little box he got from the jewellery store. He unwrapped it but the sight of the two half heart necklaces nestled so neatly inside the little box cracked him up, forcing him to pass the box over to War so he could laugh into his hand. 

War took the box carefully, looking into it in confusion before he realized what it was and his eyes widened. He looked both extremely touched and like he was trying not to burst out laughing.

“I want the half that I can actually read,” Warriors said once he calmed down. 

“Which half is that?” The other man asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position so he could reach out to show Warriors the box again, but once he’d gotten himself upright he turned even paler and almost immediately started tipping back down. 

Warriors grabbed the box and placed it on the bed beside War. “Shit, are you alright? Is it the blood sugar?” he asked quietly. 

War groaned as he slowly lowered himself back down with slightly shaky arms. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, don't worry about it. Just need food.”

Warriors chewed on his lip, then gestured to all the fruit he brought up to their room before sitting down on the floor, careful to stay more in the shadows of the room. “Have your pick. It’s not like we have anywhere we have to be right now.”

“Actually, can you grab my bag…?” War sounded like he felt horribly guilty for asking him to do something. “I have dried apricots and those have a lot of sugar in them and it’s easy to eat a lot of them fast.”

Warriors supposed that made sense, so he fetched his bag and passed it over without opening it. “You’re still going to help me eat everything, right?” he asked as he grabbed another piece of watermelon. It was the only fruit he was really worried about because everything else could be eaten over the next couple of days. Maybe it was because his Wild was particular about food that he was now worried about wasting any of it. 

The other hero hummed in agreement, still looking absolutely horrible as he dug through his bag for his snacks. “Yeah, I just need to eat something right now before I throw up or pass out or somethin’ because I’m feeling not so great right now, I don’t think the cashews I had last night were enough-”

The fucking cashews. Warriors bit his lips though. The last thing he wanted was for War to feel odd about one of the only things he seemed comfortable with eating, so he kept his mouth shut. “Did you eat anything after I passed out? If you skipped dinner, it’s been about a day since you last ate.” 

“I had some cashews, uh…” War paused to think for a moment. “I’m not sure how late it was when I fell asleep or what time it is now but I had some. After you crashed.”

“How often should you be eating something?” Warriors asked. As much as he disliked the cashews and how comfortable War seemed to be with eating only cashews when they weren’t in a town, he knew he had to work with what he had. Maybe War needed more breaks or needed more reminders. Sometimes, Warriors forgot he needed blood and he didn’t figure out he needed blood until he realized that he wasn’t feeling full from meals anymore. 

“I don’t know,” War mumbled, trying to curl up on his side while moving incredibly slowly, most likely so he didn’t upset his stomach more. “I’ve been able to get away with not eating for a while before but other times it feels like if I go over two or three hours then I’m screwed. I’m usually better about eating.”

“When you’re with your group?” he asked quietly. 

The other hero stared at him in confusion, starting to eat his dried fruit.

“Never mind,” Warriors mumbled as he turned focus back onto the box on the bed. He got up and took it, removing them from the box so he could put both halves together since he never did do that at the store. Warriors wasn’t sure why he was surprised that they actually fit together, he did get them at a fine jewellery store. The edges that separated the two hearts wasn’t a straight edge but instead, they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. War was probably not yet in the condition to sit up and look at them yet but he set the one he couldn’t actually read on the bed near War’s head. “I think they say best friends, but the only word I can actually read is ‘best’.”  

War carefully grabbed it, trying to see if he could read what it said but it didn’t seem like he was able to either. “I have what the others’ written Common looks like in my journal, just keys to their alphabets, don’t know if I mentioned that earlier or not, so I can try to figure it out once I can sit up but um… Thank you.” He tightened his hand around it and looked up at Warriors with a very genuine expression that made buying them completely worth it. “It means a lot to me that you thought of me.”

“I wish we met under better circumstances that didn’t involve getting stuck on a mountain but… I’m glad we met,” Warriors said with a gentle smile.

“Me too,” War said quietly. “This has been nice when we aren’t getting beat up by monsters.”

“Speaking of those monsters though…” he started, glancing up at War to see if he was following along, “isn’t it weird that they were infected?” 

The other hero nodded, reaching back for his orange to finish the rest of it.

“If they were infected, that means the shadow is here or was here. Maybe that means there’s a group of heroes with a missing brother here.” 

War’s eyes widened. “Oh my gods!! Yeah! If the shadow is here then they should be too!”

Warriors nodded eagerly. “One of us will still be out of luck but the other should have a reunion soon. Do you think we should keep going towards the castle then? It’s still a landmark and maybe those monsters were waiting for orders or something. They don’t usually sit in a camp like that.”

“Definitely,” War agreed. “I wouldn’t be shocked to find more of them in this area. And yeah, we should keep going for the castle. If either of our group of friends is here they’d probably head there.”

“The last thing we need is more monsters,” he said with a sigh. “Yesterday was bad enough and that’s just the parts I can actually remember. I doubt we can get to the castle without another encounter though.” 

“Yeah…” The other hero frowned, popping another orange slice in his mouth. He was quiet for a moment while he chewed, somewhat slowly, but once he swallowed he very softly mumbled, “I’m sorry about yesterday, I really am.”

“For what?  Shouldn’t I be the one apologizing? I pushed you when it was clear you didn’t really feel like talking,” Warriors mumbled as stood up so he could sit beside War on his bed instead of on the floor. He grabbed another piece of watermelon. War moved his feet under the covers to make more room for him.

“I, um…” He started, pausing as he tried to push himself up to rest against the headboard. “No, you don’t need to apologize for that. I’m really sorry for freaking out like that and I should’ve been more honest, because I made you feel bad.”

War wasn’t wrong. Warriors did feel bad about it. He still wasn’t entirely confident with speaking to War because he didn’t want to make him freak out again. He had to be feeling better if he was talking but Warriors was still trying to be cautious. “I don’t exactly blame you for having that sort of reaction. It didn’t really feel like you were… there, I guess. Do you… mind being honest now? I thought we were close enough for that but maybe I misread whatever we have going on right now.” 

“I trust you,” War said very firmly. “I do, I trust you. And I don’t mind being honest with you, I just…” He trailed off, letting out a huge sigh before looking down at his hands and continuing. “Ever since the war, I just… I don’t know, I find myself zoning out…? That doesn’t feel like the best way to describe it but I’m not sure what else to call it. Impa calls it dissociating but I don’t really like calling it that… I guess that’s what it is, though.” 

War paused for a little bit, seemingly very interested in his nails, and Warriors noticed the slight shake in his left hand. The other hero either didn’t notice it or didn’t care about it because he continued. “They trained me to be a field medic, I know I’ve told you, so I’ve seen some awful things before. I’ve seen people die because I wasn’t fast enough to save them, with sword or tool. I’ve had to stop soldiers from ripping each other to shreds over an argument because I needed them to heal, I’ve had to push people away because when they see their friends in critical condition like that they get fussy and they get in the way and they make it harder for me to do my job. It’s, um… It became very necessary for me to learn how to work in the moment and be affected by things later, because if I let myself get affected in the moment then that’s another life lost and more blood on my hands.” 

“Did you reach a point where you couldn’t push it away anymore? I used to be able to do that too but since I got cursed, I’ve lost that control over my emotions. It’s hard to shove them away for later. I can still do that sometimes but other times, when I see people that I care about are in danger and I just… lose it,” Warriors said, focusing on finishing his watermelon so he could eat another slice. 

“I don’t know,” War addressed his question, speaking very quietly. “I know I get really overwhelmed easily, which… I don’t like to admit because I feel stupid saying it, but I think it was just everything happening all at once. I almost died because I let something sneak up on me, and the last thing that did that…” He drew his knees up close to his chest and wrapped his arms around them tightly. 

“I don’t need to know if that makes you feel better,” Warriors said quietly. 

“Thanks,” the other hero whispered, resting his chin on his knees as he took a deep, steadying breath. 

Warriors watched for him a moment, seeing if he was going to say anything else before he grabbed a plum to eat. “Have you been feeling better today, though? You still seemed kind of out of it but maybe you were just tired.”

“Eating helped,” he mumbled, and Warriors saw that War did seem to have some color back in his face. “I do feel a little better, just kinda… drained, I guess. What about you? Not just your arm, but with the losing control thing?”

“I still don’t remember what happened and to be honest, it freaks me out a little. It’s really easy to try and fill in blanks from what little I can gather.The others never tell me much,” Warriors answered with a shrug. Sometimes, as much as he wanted to know, he wondered if he was better off not knowing. Maybe the others didn’t tell him because he did do something they didn’t want him to know about. “They’re doing what they think is best and maybe they’re right. I wouldn’t know.” 

“Do you want me to tell you?” War asked softly.

“I guess if you’re offering, I couldn’t have done anything that bad. Let’s hear it.” He took a bite out of his plum, then found himself scrambling for a rag from his bag. He completely underestimated how juicy they were. It was exactly what he was craving but Warriors wished they were a little less messy. 

“I don’t know what happened before this because I was trying to get the bokoblins out of the way and you were behind me,” he told him, “but one of the darknuts snuck up on me and I didn’t really notice until it was too late. I managed to avoid getting my leg cut in half but it hit my knee with the flat of the blade and I couldn’t get up, and then you showed up and you snapped its neck with your bare hands.”

“I didn’t know I could do that to a darknut,” Warriors mumbled quietly. He couldn’t say he was shocked but it was still unpleasant to hear. 

“I didn’t either,” War blinked. “I didn’t think that was even possible, I th- I thought I was going to die but you killed it. And then you didn’t get very far with the last one before it took your arm off, but you really didn’t let that stop you and I was frozen like a fucking idiot while you took it down with one arm. And once it was dead I called you and you turned around and stared at me, an’ you just stared at me for a second and then you just…” The other hero trailed off with a frown.

Warriors frowned. “Just what?”

“…Did you lose control of your vampire powers because of me?”

Warriors blinked at him, then felt his cheeks burn a little. “Yeah… I heard you scream and that was it. I can’t remember anything after that. I didn’t hurt you, right?” 

“No,” War shook his head, “no. You just- After the darknuts were dead you stared at me and then passed out and then I killed the last stupid bokoblin and put your arm back on. You’ve never hurt me.”

Warriors tried to think about what he knew regarding his loss of control. He knew he tended to lose control because of some external factors like black blood and dark magic. He knew he lost control when he felt like people he cared about were in danger. He thought he knew he couldn’t distinguish between friend and foe, so why didn’t he attack War? He knew he had to protect him but he was mindless when he lost control. He did protect Twilight once but he also attacked the others, and he didn’t wake up near Twilight, so he kind of assumed that distance and the fact that the others were there to distract him was what kept him safe. 

“I don’t know why I didn’t attack you. I’m glad I didn’t but that doesn’t make sense.” 

“What do you mean?” War asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

“I knew I had to protect you but I know I’ve attacked my brothers before. They had to restrain me because I didn’t recognize them. If I couldn’t recognize my brothers and attacked them… then why didn't I attack you?” Warriors pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Was it because he knew he had to protect War? If Twilight happened to be awake, would he have recognized him too? 

“Maybe because you lost an arm and reached a limit…?” The other hero suggested.

“Maybe. The last time I lost an arm, I was in control, and I did end up passing out partially because I lost an arm. The other reason was because I wasn’t used to my powers back then, so they exhausted me. I’m better at that now but my powers are still exhausting even today.” Warriors felt like something was still missing but exhaustion would have played a role no matter what. He thought about it as he continued to eat his plum. Maybe he was just too exhausted to attack War. Warriors had to use his powers a lot lately since it was just the two of them. 

“Oh, do you need blood?” War asked. “It’s been a bit?”

“I should drink some blood. I’m surprised my arm is actually healed right now since I drank more potion than I did blood.” He finished off his plum, then flexed his fingers on the arm he lost. There really wasn’t any pain left and it wasn’t even a full day since he lost it. He supposed that he didn’t need as much blood if he had enough potion to make up the difference. Warriors was sure Wild would help him test it out. 

War held out his right arm, sleeve already rolled up, offering it to him. He bit War enough that he should know the routine, so Warriors didn’t hesitate to summon his fangs and bring his wrist to his mouth. Once he had his fangs where he wanted them, he pressed down and began filling his mouth with blood. It was so warm and fresh . The fish blood was good but it was a day old and it didn’t taste as good as War’s fresh and warm blood. 

The other hero tapped him on the head after a little bit. “I’m feeling a little dizzy.”

Warriors retracted his fangs and like he did all the other times he bit War, he licked his wrist until no more blood pooled to the surface of his skin. He couldn’t get quite as much blood from War but every bit helped, so he wasn’t in the position to complain.

“Sorry,” War mumbled, resting back against the headboard and closing his eyes.

“As long as you’re relatively okay,” he said quietly as he rubbed his eyes. Warriors was exhausted but he wasn’t injured anymore, so he didn’t expect the blood to make feel sleepier. Maybe there was still some healing left to do, even if all he felt was an ache if he tried to carry too much. “Your blood had the opposite effect.” 

“Hm?” The other hero let out a confused hum, blindly reaching for the pouch of his cashews.

“I need a nap,” he mumbled as he set his head down beside War’s legs. “I thought your blood would wake me up. I guess this is what I get for staying awake for so long after I drank the fish blood.” 

“Oh,” War whispered. “Well, we have beds.”

“I’m already comfortable here,” he mumbled as he closed his eyes. He meant to just close his eyes for a little bit or just take a little power nap like he did on the road sometimes, but he woke up to War calling his name. 

He lifted his head and blinked at War before the smell of cooked food registered in his brain. 

“Dinner already? How long has it been?” he asked as he sat up. Dinner was brought on a tray that was sitting beside the watermelon he cut earlier but he reached for the watermelon first, intending to finish it before he ate anything else.

“Uh,” War sighed, pushing his hair out of his face, “I’m not sure. I think maybe three hours? I fell asleep too-”

“It’s a good thing we have a safe place to sleep in for another night then. Having to do a watch would not be good for either one of us right now,” Warriors said. War did look a little rough earlier, so he was actually glad he got some sleep too. He still looked a little paler than usual but hopefully, an actual meal and a bath after would do both of them some wonders. 

“Yeah, and I much prefer getting to have pillows instead of sleeping on the ground.”

“You going to grab a plate?” Warriors asked as he went for another slice of watermelon. 

War nodded, reaching towards the tray their dinner had been brought on. There were plates full of rice and meats and steamed vegetables for them to grab what they wanted from, but War picked up a little soup bowl first, holding it carefully with two hands as he settled back against the headboard. 

While War focused on his bowl, Warriors finished what he could have the watermelon, leaving only the rinds and the two halves he couldn’t really eat, so he quickly brought the cutting board, the knife, and the rinds back downstairs. When the rinds were discarded and the board and knife returned, he came back upstairs and grabbed his share of dinner. He found himself gravitating towards the meat, adding some of each kind to his plate before filling his plate up with rice and vegetables. 

“Do you have something on your mind or are just tired? You’re still kind of quiet,” Warriors asked as he stuffed some of the meat into his mouth. He wasn’t sure if War would humour him but did seem to be more honest with him today, so maybe he would. 

“I am tired,” War admitted. “I just feel kinda exhausted and gross, but I’ve also been thinking about my cats… I miss them, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

Right. Cats. He did bring them up before when Warriors was too busy laughing at him to ask about them. “Must be nice to have a pet. Most animals either flee or attack me. Apparently, the existence of vampires is very offensive to them. Who is taking care of your cats while you’re gone?” 

“A few different people,” the other hero told him, pausing to sip at his soup. “Sometimes I have a buddy of mine from the army watch them, usually when I’m only gone for a few days, but Zelda also checks in on them from time to time if she has a moment. My sister also watches them, so does my uh- friend. He’s not really around for long enough to watch them long term but they really like him so it’s easiest when he takes care of them.” He stared into his bowl for a moment before adding, “I’m sorry animals don’t like you.”

“If only it was a simple dislike. I’ve been chased by a dog, Twilight won’t sit with me if he’s transformed, a cat has attacked me and so have bees, and I almost got killed by one of the goats from Ordon. It charged it at me and those things are huge! That thing fucking hated me. Twilight doesn’t think the goat would have killed me but I swear, it would have found a way!”

War looked at him with wide eyes. “O- Oh my gods?? Why do they want you dead??”

“I don’t know why! I just know that animals don’t like vampires for some reason. I guess Twilight could tell me but he never has. Luckily, horses don’t seem to hate me, which is weird because they’re afraid of a lot of things, and possums like me? I haven’t even heard of them until Twilight saw me with one in my lap. Cuccos haven’t out right attacked me until I hissed at them but they just kept staring at me with their beady little eyes.” 

“Not a fan of cuccos. My sister, Linkle specifically, used to chase me with them,” War grumbled before his voice softened. “But I’m glad horses like you, the war probably would’ve been difficult if they didn’t since there were so many of them around.”

“There’s no army without horses,” Warriors agreed. He was lucky horses didn’t seem to care one way or another. His relationship with Epona was basically the same before and after getting cursed and he was grateful that he could still ride her without an issue. “It’s embarrassing at the ranch though. Talon and Malon don’t know and Talon thinks I’m scared of the animals because I try to avoid them so they don’t try and attack me. I also sleep in all the time because I can’t help it and I can only imagine what they think of that.”

“Malon doesn’t know?” War asked, setting his soup bowl back on the tray so he could grab a plate.

He shook his head. “Time said she wouldn’t care, and I don’t think she would, but I don’t want to risk it right now. I don’t think I could handle it if we were wrong and she does care about it.” 

“In my experience,” the other hero said very slowly, frowning down at his empty plate as he’d frozen while getting himself some rice, “Malon is very kind, and very understanding. And patient. You don’t have to tell her anything you don’t want to, obviously, but…” War sighed, moving again and scooping up a good sized portion of rice. 

“I know. I’m just scared of losing what we have. My mom died when I was young and I didn’t really know her. I don’t even really remember her. My aunt never really liked me and kicked me out as soon as she could. Malon is the only person in my life who probably wouldn’t get mad if I accidentally called her mom,” he mumbled, shoving his vegetables around a bit before he ate them.

“Do you get to see her often?” War asked softly.

“Malon? Often enough, I guess. We’ve been to the ranch quite a few times and we tend to stay for a few days at a time. I’m never telling Talon about the whole vampire thing but I do want to tell Malon one day. I know it would make my life easier if I didn’t have to hide it from her. It’s just… hard.” 

“I… Well, I don’t understand your specific situation,” War said, “but I get being scared to tell people you really appreciate something because you’re worried they’ll treat you differently or something. If… If the Malon you know is anything like the one I know, I don’t think your being a vampire would change her opinion of you.”

Warriors let War’s words hang for a moment. He appreciated what War said but even though he wanted to tell Malon, he didn’t think he was ready for it, so he didn’t really want to talk about it anymore. Once he cleaned his plate and grabbed some more food, he tried to think about a topic that would take some attention off of him for a bit

“What are your cats like?”

“They’re very sweet,” War told him, poking at his rice. “One of them sleeps up by me when I’m home. She likes to rub her head against my face and doesn’t really have a concept of personal space but it’s okay because I love her. The other one is more affectionate in general, she likes other people besides me, and she likes to play with my pens but only while I’m sitting at my desk trying to get work done.”

“What are their names?” he asked “And I think you once in the cabin said they were naked?”

“They are hairless, they are not naked,” War looked up at him with a sad frown. “They have little sweaters, I knit them sweaters so they don’t get cold, and their names are Rosie and Delilah. Rosie’s the friendlier one and Delilah is the one who sleeps by me.”

“What’s the difference?” he asked with a frown of his own. He wasn’t paying attention the first time Warriors brought it up because he was too busy laughing about his ‘friend’ but he didn’t understand why War would be upset about it. 

“…I guess there isn’t really one,” War huffed, ducking his head and resuming picking at his food. “I mean naked suggests they have no clothes…? Which they do but y’know they’re cats so it doesn’t matter but Legend calls them bald. And he calls them raw chickens. And it makes me upset and he knows it makes me upset which is why he keeps doing it and he makes fun of me for making them sweaters…” He looked back up at Warriors with big hazel eyes. “They get cold. I’d be a horrible cat owner if I just let them freeze! So I make them sweaters to keep them warm.”

“I’m sure they appreciate it. I don’t know cats too well because they try to murder me but I’m sure if they didn’t like the sweaters, they wouldn’t keep wearing them,” he said with a shrug. From what he knew of cats, they were animals that didn’t have a problem letting people know when they were unhappy. “Where does somebody even find two nake- hairless cats?” 

“They step into the sweaters when I hold them like… Open…? For them to crawl into? So they definitely don’t hate them, Legend just likes to watch me get upset,” the other hero grumbled. “And I found them in the rubble of a destroyed village. Natural disaster hit, all the people who lived there were evacuated safely for the most part and I was sent to make sure everyone really was out and I just found them. Delilah was trapped under a small rock, it was pressing a bit on her leg and Rosie was just standing by her. I don’t think I would’ve seen them if she wasn’t meowing at me…” War’s voice got very quiet with that sentence. “I tried to find who they belonged to, but no one claimed them or even seemed to recognize them so I figured they could come with me for a bit. I’d meant to give them a good home, where they’d have someone stable to take care of them, but they got really attached to me and selfishly I didn’t want to give them away, so. I still have them. Almost seven years later.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow. “Nobody recognized them in the village you found them in? That’s… odd. It sounds like they’re good for you though. Do they approve of your friend ?” he asked with a smirk.

War rolled his eyes but he also let out a laugh. “They do, Delilah doesn’t like most people and by that I mean she actively dislikes most people but she’ll curl up on his lap, and then Rosie just likes people who are nice to her. And yeah I’ve always thought it was weird that no one from that village claimed to have ever seen them before.” 

“Do you ever think your cats are trying to give you a hint?” 

“To what?” War blinked at him.

“Animals are a good judge of character. If Delilah hates people but likes your friend, then you basically have her approval to take your friendship to the next level. Maybe with a ring.” 

He saw the moment it clicked in War’s brain what he was saying because the other man’s face went red. “S- She doesn’t- Okay, she doesn’t hate everyone, she likes my sister. And Zelda. Not as much as Si- My friend, but she likes other people!”

“Are you interested in your Zelda? Otherwise, you only named people you wouldn’t date anyway, so that still leaves your friend as the one Deliliah approves of. I think you should listen to her. She sounds like she’s a smart cat.” 

“I’m not interested in my Zelda, I’m not interested in women,” War mumbled, going quiet for a moment before he realized what he’d said and also that he’d done nothing but basically agree with him, and then he started stumbling over his words. “H- Hold on- I mean that-”

“Mean what, War?” Warriors understood why his Legend liked to tease him so much. War just made it so easy. His reactions were gold .  “What is his name, anyway? Simon? Silas? Silvestor? Maybe Sid? Wait no, that’s usually a nickname for longer names like Sidney. How about Sigurd? He’s a noble, right, they usually have long and fancy names like… Siegfried .” 

“SIEGFRIED??” War burst out laughing, holding a hand to his chest when he ended up starting to cough. “Oh my gods! No! No, no, it’s Sidney. His name is Sidney.” 

“I was beginning to wonder if I would get to know this guy’s name. Now I know which name to use to tease you even more,” Warriors said with a grin that included his fangs before he quickly retracted them in case somebody else walked in on them.

“Do you control when your fangs show?” War asked curiously, staring at him with wide but nonjudgmental eyes. “I notice they’re there sometimes but not always.” He paused for a second before very quickly adding, “Sorry if that was an invasive question- I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

“I can mostly control it. They’re always out when I have some bad injuries and I can’t retract them until the injuries start getting better and sometimes they just kind of slip out around my brothers and they have to remind me to put them away. There’s also the blood moon in Wild’s era…” he trailed off, debating on if he wanted to get into that . War saw what he was like without control already so the story shouldn’t catch him too offguard, but Warriors didn’t really like thinking about it. “I can control them any other time, though.” 

“Is it uncomfortable to like, hide them?”

He shook his head. “No, it only gets uncomfortable if I take them out and put them back a lot in quick succession. Sometimes I don’t even feel them coming out, I have to feel for them with my tongue,” he answered as he cleaned off his plate. 

“Huh, I assumed maybe it’d feel weird to keep them hidden like that.” War ate a little more of his food.

“If I’m being honest… I don’t even know where they go,” he said quietly. It was weird to say out loud but he would have died of embarrassment if he admitted it to his brothers. “I can feel them but I don’t know if the structure of my jaw changed to make space for them when they’re not out. They’re also sharper! My teeth when they’re not out aren’t that sharp.”

“I mean it makes sense you’re not sure where they go,” War shrugged, “since you can’t see inside your own mouth, you know? It’s really cool that you have so much control over them.”

“You think so? I struggled to control them at first. It took me like a week to figure out how to put them away. It’s the most basic skill a vampire needs but it took me a long time to figure it out.” He frowned. It was just one of those ways where he wasn’t like other vampires. Other vampires didn’t need to be told how their powers worked. They just knew. Warriors was the only one who struggled and had to figure it out on his own.

“Yeah, I do,” War nodded with a small smile. “And it’s okay if it took you longer, you figured it out eventually.”

He rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t allowed to leave my room until I could. Part of it was making sure I was well fed because I was in danger of starving to death when I met the other vampires. It’s like being injured, I wouldn’t have been able to retract my fangs until I was better. The other part was that they took it as a sign that I wouldn’t be able to control myself around regular people if I couldn’t control my fangs. Their hired help are all hylians, so I was a danger to all of them until I figured it out.” 

“Ah,” the other hero said softly.

“All that, and sometimes I still slip up and everybody can tell because of the stupid not-Hylian eyes,” Warriors continued, barely registering the fact that War said anything at all. 

“I think they look cool,” War told him. “They’re very unique, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I think they’re pretty.”

Warriors felt his cheeks and ears burn. Not even his brothers complimented his eyes before. They never said anything bad about them but they didn’t compliment them either. His eyes were just… there. “You can’t be serious. You actually like them?” 

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I wouldn’t lie to you and say I did if I really didn’t think so.”

Warriors put his empty plate down and used his hands to cover his eyes even though his fangs were not out, so he was just covering his blue eyes. “You’re not creeped out by them?” 

“Not at all,” War answered, and he could practically hear the concerned frown in his voice. “Has someone told you they’re creepy?”

“I thought they were at first. Even I had to get used to them! My brothers had to get used to them. They’re so fucking yellow that they almost glow in the dark. It’s fucking weird,” he said as he kept his eyes covered with his hands. 

He heard War shift on the bed, probably to sit up more. “I bet them looking different so suddenly, completely out of your control, after so long of you being used to them being blue was upsetting. I can’t imagine what that must’ve felt like, but I don’t think they’re weird.”

Warriors groaned. The other hero couldn’t be serious. He was doing that ‘being understanding thing’ though, so he probably was serious. He couldn’t understand the appeal. “Why must you be so nice and understanding?” he asked, completely aware that War couldn’t see him rolling his eyes with his hands covered. 

“Because you deserve someone being kind to you?” The other hero sounded confused. “But also I know what it feels like to look different from everyone else and to be treated differently because of it.”

Warriors dropped his hands away from his face. “Most people can’t tell unless I have my fangs out anyway. It’s the things that I have done or can do that worry me more. There’s a reason why young vampires have to stay with older vampires for an entire century. They can’t be trusted to stay in control. That’s one of the very few ways where I’m actually like other vampires and it’s because I can kill people without remembering it. It’s a wonder you’re still around.” 

“I’m a little hard to kill,” War joked, but there was a weird tone in his voice that made it sound like he didn’t find it quite so funny as he was trying to make it seem. “Many have tried, all have failed.”

Warriors blinked at him. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t that . He couldn’t really argue against it either. War was still alive and he probably managed it without losing body parts and breaking all the bones in his legs. “I think I’m the one who is supposed to say that,” Warriors said quietly once his brain caught up. 

“You ever tried to fuck with someone who tried to kill you?” War asked, staring at him wide eyes and a slightly empty look that told him it was a very impulsive question. “Like… Since you don’t die from things that would certainly kill someone else.”

“I’ve stuck around for hours after getting ‘poisoned’ with hemlock. As soon as I taste it, I clear the rest of my evening so that the person who did it can see me up and talking somebody’s ear off when I should have been dead two hours ago. They tend to give themselves away after that because they can’t hide the utter confusion on their face,” he said with a shrug. "It's almost too bad that people haven’t tried to out right attack me since I got cursed. It would be kind of funny at this point.” 

The other hero covered his mouth with his hand. “Oh my gods, what did they even do when they saw you were fine??”

“One of them confessed in front of Impa and he’s in prison now. He was poisoning me for a week straight but I just thought he was bad at cooking. He confronted me about it because he was so confused. The other two knew to keep their mouths shut so they’re still free but one of them kept offering me more poisoned snacks and then stared at me from the kitchen. The other sulked and left like I broke their heart or something,” Warriors answered simply. “I guess I kind of did break their heart by not dying.” 

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” War said. “But gods… You just thought he couldn’t cook??”

“I didn’t know what hemlock tasted like before that! What else was I supposed to think?” Warriors asked, throwing his hands up. “At least I know now!” 

The other hero looked back down at his plate and mumbled under his breath, “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”  

“Are you done eating? I don’t know about you, but I can really use that bath.” He glanced at the plate in War’s hand, then decided to get up and clean the fruit off of his bed so he didn’t have to do it later. There was still plenty of time for them to go to the bathhouse if War was still hungry but Warriors felt… gross.

War nodded, sticking his plate on the little table next to him. “I’m done.”

“Then let’s take all of this down and get going!”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take them a long time to clean up the dishes and carry them downstairs, and since they didn’t really have anything with them to bring to the bathhouse they just headed down once they’d gathered up all the plates. War had been so out of it when they’d arrived that he really didn’t remember the innkeepers but they seemed very kind and he thanked them for bringing them dinner. 

“We’ll be back for another night after we check out the bathhouse. You two have done a lot for us, so I can’t wait to see what any place you recommend has for us.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal! We’re just happy that you two seem better today! Go enjoy the bathhouse, our niece will be here when you get back,” the woman said, making a shooing motion with her hands.  

War waved goodbye and thanked her again as he followed Warriors out the door, trusting the other hero knew where he was going. It turned out that the bathhouse was essentially right across the street, but even though their walk was short, War was able to take a minute to really look at the small town. It didn’t look too different from the other they’d been in, but it was still nice to have a chance to look around, scanning the shops and houses and watching as people passed by. He didn’t think he’d have time to explore, since he’d probably go to bed right after the bathhouse and then they’d be leaving the following morning, so this was probably as much of a look as he was going to get.

It wasn’t too cold yet, the sun was still in the sky even if it was setting, but thankfully they’d stepped foot into the warm bathhouse before War felt the need to pull his scarf around himself. 

It’d been too long since he’d been able to have a real bath, and War was very excited for a real chance to wash his hair and feel clean and just relax and not have to worry about anything for a minute. He still felt a bit overwhelmed from the previous day and he wanted the lingering anxious feeling and tension in his shoulders gone.

He followed Warriors all the way up to the front counter, stopping beside him and digging through his belt pouch for his wallet in hopes that the other hero could do the talking if he paid for everything.

War didn’t catch the first part of their conversation but he heard Warriors inquire about the rooms. “Is it just communal or are there any private rooms?” 

“We have one private bath available. They aren’t as big but it can fit the two of you. They are more expensive, however,” the lady explained. “It’s only fifty for the communal baths but it’ll be two hundred for a private room.” 

“The cost isn’t a concern. We’ll take it.” 

“Great! The door will be locked, so this will be your key to get in and out, but the employees will have a copy just in case of an emergency. The bath is yours until you sign out. You’re welcomed to any of the supplies in the room but we ask that you leave all bags and clothing you came in with in the changing rooms, there will be something clean for you to change into. We will knock fifteen minutes before closing. Any questions?” she asked as placed a key on the counter and turned a book, along with something to write with, towards them. 

“I’m alright,” Warriors said simply as he started to write his name in the book. 

War shook his head for his answer, putting the two hundred rupees on the counter, and once that was all finished up he followed Warriors to the changing room, delighted to discover that it got warmer the further in they walked. 

The changing room was just for the two of them, which was a relief to War because he felt safe leaving his stuff around the other hero and he wasn’t sure he’d feel the same way leaving his belongings around a bunch of people he didn’t know. Warriors really had no need to take anything from him, if he’d wanted to he would’ve done it already, not that War had ever really thought he would take any of his things. He trusted the other man. He really did, which felt weird considering they hadn’t known each other long, but at this point with what they’d been through together he’d definitely call Warriors a friend. 

War was very grateful that the other hero had requested the private bath. He didn’t like people staring at him, he didn’t like being observed really, and he allowed most of his brothers to assume he was insecure about the great number of scars that covered his torso because if that was a satisfying enough answer for them then they’d never ask for the real one. Of course the smart nosy ones figured it out anyway, that being almost all of the fuckers at this point, that it wasn’t the scars War was insecure about but rather the way he physically looked. He knew he should just be grateful he had a body that functioned at all after everything he’d been through, but he hated how thin he looked. He’d always been on the scrawny side, he’d gotten teased for it in the army when he’d first been drafted because there’d been boys his age who were double his size, but no matter how hard he pushed himself he’d never been able to grow to look like them.

The war had made it all worse, with food becoming difficult to get sometimes and then him being afraid to eat it because of the poisons, and he’d ended up losing weight he couldn’t afford to lose during those years of hell. Once everything had ended, he hadn’t miraculously gotten better. In all honesty his paranoia had just gotten worse and he’d found himself in a pit at rock bottom for a whole year before he’d finally been able to start healing and making good progress, but his progress wasn’t enough. It was never enough. It was a struggle to keep his weight up and stay in a healthy range and every time he slipped back out of it, he wanted to scream and rip his hair out. 

He knew he had a smaller, narrower frame than all those other army friends of his he’d ever compared himself to, but it was so unfair that they didn’t seem to struggle to look healthy and be strong. He felt pathetic calling himself a hero standing next to men who looked the part. 

The noblemen sure gave him hell for being as small as he was, making their stupid remarks behind his back when they knew he could hear them talk about how weak he looked. Of course there were also those who told him he shouldn’t want to gain weight and be healthier because he ‘looked pretty’, as if that was the whole point of him and he was good for nothing else. To just sit there and be some pretty, delicate little thing that someone could stick on a shelf somewhere. It made him feel ill every time.

He didn’t like how visible his bones were, or how clearly defined his muscles were due to lack of anything to cover them up, and he didn’t like when people stared at him. He didn’t like when he could hear the comments they were thinking in his own brain.

While he’d left his pauldron and bracers back at the inn as well as the majority of his things, he still had his belt and a few of the daggers he always kept on his person. It was a small town full of seemingly very nice people, but he just didn’t feel safe without some of them. He didn’t really feel safe without at least one on his person at all times but he didn’t want the water to cause damage to the one he always had with him, as that specific blade had been a gift, so as he changed out of his dirty clothes he begrudgingly removed it from where it was strapped against his thigh. Warriors had proven a good few times now that he was more than capable of tearing apart a monster with his bare hands, so War would just have to force himself to relax and trust that the other hero could protect him if gods forbid something fucking happened.

Grabbing a robe and wrapping it around himself tightly as if that would suddenly fix how he felt about his physical appearance, War made it exactly two steps towards the door to the bath before a chill ran down his spine and his heart started to race, forcing him to turn around and go grab his dagger. He was almost as superstitious about bringing that thing with him everywhere as he was about his mother’s ring that he wore around his neck and refused to take off. It wasn’t even that he thought he’d need to use it, it just had to come with him. 

The gods just couldn’t have let him be normal, could they?

He put the dagger into the pocket of the robe, not wanting Warriors to think he was weird any more than he already did, picked up a couple of towels, and then finally headed over to the bath.

Warriors was already in the bath, wearing just a towel around his waist. He had his head titled back, using his robes as a pillow. He looked almost like he was sleeping but when War stepped into the room, he lifted his head up. 

“The water is so warm. You’ll love it,” he mumbled, letting out a contented sigh as he put his head back on the robe pillow. 

Fucking genius- War felt stupid for never having thought to do that in all the times he’d ever gone to a bathhouse. 

He forced himself to take a calm, deep breath so he didn’t start panicking over the intrusive thought of Warriors making fun of how he was able to see his bones, and scrambled into the water the second he’d taken the robe off and set his towels down. 

Warriors didn’t move. He kept his head on his makeshift pillow. “What the fuck are you doing over there?” he asked, though there wasn’t a hint of annoyance in his voice. He seemed too relaxed to care too much. 

“…Getting in the bath??” War blinked at him, grateful the other hero wasn’t really looking at him so he had a minute to fix his towels into a pillow.

“It sounded like you were very eager to get in here,” he explained. “I can’t blame you. It’s fucking divine. It’s a good thing we can be here for a while.” 

Eager, yes. Not anxious. Definitely not anxious. He could go with eager.

“You know me,” he tried to sound calm and normal, “I’m always freezing my ass off. Wasn’t going to waste time getting in the warm water.”

“I think that’s one of the first things you made clear from the start. You’re Link and you hate the snow,” he mumbled. He was still sitting in the tub with his eyes closed, like he was half-asleep. “That mountain did suck though. I don’t think I will ever miss snow. I’ve seen enough and I can’t even die of old age.” 

“Snow’s horrible…” he huffed, letting himself sink further into the water. It felt wonderful on his aching knee. “It’s cold and wet and I don’t see the point of it. In another life I’m pretty sure I was some little lizard on a nice warm rock somewhere living my best life.”

“Didn’t you say that Sidney lives up in the mountains?” 

“Yeah, he does,” War nodded, letting his eyes start to drift closed. The water really was nice.

“If you ever marry him, are you going to live up there with him or would you drag him somewhere else?” Warriors asked that goofy grin he always had whenever he was teasing him. 

He… He’d never actually thought about that… He’d only just recently come to the conclusion that he did genuinely have feelings for his friend and that maybe he did deserve to have something he wanted, and every aspect of his life was so controlled he’d never really had the time to imagine what a future with someone would look like. To be fair to him, it wasn’t like Sidney really had the option to move in with him anywhere. War just lived in the castle because Zelda wanted to keep him close, and Sidney had a whole castle he was inheriting.

“I don’t think I could drag him somewhere else,” he mumbled. 

“Is he getting the estate?” Warriors asked. “He better give you the best blankets and the most insulated room in the estate. Assuming you actually marry him, of course.” 

“He is, yeah.”  War let out a small laugh. “I know you don’t like to believe me much when I say he’s just a friend, but as of right now that is what he is. H- How I feel doesn’t really change that he’s just my friend. So, I have no idea what the future holds.”

Warriors lifted his head, raising an eyebrow at War. “What do you mean by that? About how you feel not changing anything?”

“Like… What if he doesn’t actually want anything… with me,” he said quietly, starting to pick anxiously at his fingernails. “I’ve known him five years, and I’ve had a chance to have something, but… I didn’t take it.”

“Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to ask.” Warriors sat up straighter and ran a wet hand through his hand. He kept his eyes down, looking at the bottom of the tub. “I know it’s not easy to be vulnerable like that, but you might regret it if that chance is still there and you didn’t realize it because you didn’t ask.” 

“I know,” he whispered, really finding his nails interesting. They needed to be cut shorter.

“Huh….” Warriors said suddenly. War looked up and found Warriors looking at his own burn scar in what seemed to be in fascination before he turned his gaze towards him. “You have more burn scars than me.” 

His eyes immediately went to the other hero’s left arm, noticing that the burn scars stopped in the middle of his bicep, and that they were just on his arm.

War stared down at himself as if his scar had suddenly changed up on him and then stared back at Warriors, genuinely confused that he’d never noticed before. His own burn scar from Volga stretched over a large portion of skin. When the flames had been shot at him he’d turned sideways, raising his arm to protect himself and curling inward, so the fire had hit his hand and outer arm but also his side, stretching down from the middle of his ribs to his hip and down to his upper thigh on the left side of his body. The severity of the burn varied depending on the location, the part on his thigh and hip had healed decently well and had only left a faint mark, but he’d suffered nerve damage in places over his ribs and his arm where he had been too badly burnt. The texture of the skin was different, it couldn’t grow hair because the flesh had been so damaged that the roots had been destroyed, and it made it difficult for him to regulate his temperature. Impa had warned him he’d been more likely to overheat. 

He had to wrap Warriors up when the other hero had been impaled a few days ago and he’d just reattached his arm for him, though in his defense it’d been the right one that’d fallen off. But he still couldn’t believe he’d been so distracted he’d completely missed how much less skin Warriors’s burn scar covered.

“I think I have more scars than you in general,” he mumbled, crossing his arms over his stomach to hide one of his bigger ones. Specifically, the one he’d gotten from taking a sword straight through him for Mask the last time he’d seen the kid during the war before he’d had to send him away.

“I think you’re right. I got most of my bad injuries after I got cursed and you know, I don’t scar anymore,” Warriors said, holding up the arm that was cut off. “Not even a mark left. You can’t tell that it got cut off just yesterday.” 

It genuinely was remarkable that he’d been able to heal like that. It didn’t matter if War definitely knew by now that Warriors would heal up just fine, he was amazed at being able to see it with his own eyes. The arm really did look completely fine, he certainly wouldn’t have ever guessed something had happened to it.

He wasn’t exactly jealous that Warriors didn’t have as many scars as him, not only because he knew that the reason the other hero didn’t scar had affected his life in so many other ways but also because he genuinely didn’t feel ashamed that he’d been injured and the marks of those injuries lingered. It was proof he’d survived, proof the war was real, and proof to himself that he’d fought to protect as many people as he could. But he knew the people in his era found it difficult to look at him and recognize how the war had changed him. They could ignore how it’d destroyed the person he’d been the day he’d been drafted because they couldn’t see inside his head, but the visible marks on his skin were less ignorable. The scars were a very violent reminder that the kingdom had dropped so much pressure on a child they told themselves was invincible, and that their hero had been hurt badly. When he didn’t carefully cover the scars on his face, there were people who stared at him not with looks of ‘those scars are proud marks of triumph despite everything’, but rather awkward, pitying stares that cried ‘we could’ve done better but we didn’t’. He didn’t like how people looked at him like that, and that was the only reason he wished there’d been no visual signs he’d ever fought for his life and the lives of every hylian in the kingdom on the front lines.

“Do your scars affect your daily life at all?” he asked quietly. “You definitely have enough scar tissue to have complications. My burn scars don’t bother me much now but they used to feel tight.”

“A bit, yeah,” he admitted. “The burn one makes it hard for me to cool down because where a lot of the skin is damaged, I can’t sweat, so my body can’t regulate its temperature very well sometimes. Which was really upsetting to find out about because the heat didn’t used to bother me as much as my fellow soldiers since I was so used to it. That skin also gets really dry and irritated and it feels weird to move and sometimes it’s just so tight feeling it hurts, so I’m usually pretty good about keeping it from getting too dry.” Warriors didn’t need to know his skin had been bothering him the past few days, and he also didn’t need to know that War was so used to feeling like shit that he’d been successfully ignoring it because it’d do him no good to sit around moping since there was nothing he could do about it anyway. “Have a few others that make movement slightly difficult when the scar tissue gets irritated. Some occasionally just hurt because the wounds were deep and I had to mostly heal the old fashioned way. I wouldn’t be surprised if my insides were all messed up and scarred too…”

He really was lucky that the wound he’d gotten when he’d been impaled hadn’t been any worse than it was. In the seven years it’d been since he’d been run through, the only problem with the injury he’d had was that it ached sometimes when the weather got too extreme or if he overworked himself. His organs were all functioning properly to his knowledge, definitely thanks to the sheer amount of magic that’d been used to keep him alive and fighting. It must’ve cured him enough that the part left to heal with natural time hadn’t been anything too deep. 

“Do you need anything for them? Lotion used to help my burn scar at least.” Warriors began to settle a bit, once again leaning his head back to rest it on his robe made pillow. “Assuming they’ve been bothering you, I guess.”

“Yeah, I usually have a lotion I put on them,” War sighed, “it’s just with my friends, along with my hair stuff and my makeup and the rest of my belongings.”

He frowned, adjusting how his arms were crossed over his middle. He knew part of why he’d been so overwhelmed and off because he was really struggling with having lost such a huge part of his routine and being separated from his things, as well as his brothers, but he found it stupid that he was so okay with not wearing makeup because he genuinely didn’t care if Warriors saw his scars and freckles and all the little things he usually tried to cover up. It wasn’t that making him upset, it really wasn’t, it was the fact that it was a step missing from his routine. He’d really been trying to take care of his hair and skin, for his own sanity but also his comfort, and it was annoying that he was so far from his things.

“Oh yeah, we should go see what they have for that.” Warriors groaned as he stood up, stretched, and quickly tossed his robe over himself as he slowly walked over to a shelf full of different bottles. 

War should probably get up and go look too but he was comfortable in the warm water and he didn’t want Warriors to look at him. Not that the other hero hadn’t already and instead of making fun of him or telling him to eat something, had pointed out how their scars were different but it was hard for his rational brain to get his emotions under control sometimes. He hated how he looked and he’d much prefer not having a physical form at all, but unfortunately he had to exist in the physical world so here he was. 

He forced himself to just get over it and scrambled out of the water as fast as he could, snatching up his robe and wrapping it around himself at an alarming speed as he scurried after Warriors. 

There was a shockingly large selection of products to choose from, a bunch of different soaps in a variety of different scents, and War’s jaw dropped when he saw a bottle of shampoo with a very familiar label on it. It wasn’t the one he used now, but it was a formula he was familiar with and one he knew would be good for his hair type. That was a rare find. 

He almost squealed when he found there was a good conditioner too.

Warriors also seemed to have found something he liked too. He was holding two bottles in the crook of his arm, along with a cloth draped across his forearm, but he was still scanning the shelves. “How do you feel about adding some bubbles or something? Oh, maybe bath salts?” 

“Bubbles are good,” War answered a little too quickly to sound nonchalant and not very interested. Warriors nodded and picked another bottle from the shelf before returning to the tub. 

He sat the bottles and cloth down by the side of the tub where he was soaking before, then uncapped one of the bottles and walked around the tub, holding the bottle upside down over it as he finished his lap. Once he seemed satisfied, he put the cap back on, reset his robe pillow, and stepped back in. 

War was quick to hop back in the water, not just because he didn’t want to be left standing there for long but also because the water had been so nice and warm that he’d started to get cold, even if he had had his robe around him. He was really going to hate the walk back to the inn.

He sank down far enough that the water came just below his chin and let out a sigh, just enjoying the nice warmth again. 

“I can’t think of the last time I had a bubble bath,” Warriors said, shaking his hand in the water to make bubbles. 

War paused to think, waving his own hands in the water to watch the bubbles appear and staring at them with wide eyes for a moment before he could get his thoughts together. “I think for me it was a few months…? We haven’t been to my era in a while and I ran out of the, like, bubble bath stuff a bit ago and haven’t had time to buy more. Since the war ended Zelda really gets on my ass about taking care of myself, and she tells me that self care isn’t just making sure you don’t die but also doing things that you like. So whenever I get sad I guess I just…? Have a bubble bath…?”

Warriors paused for a moment before he suddenly dunked his head underwater and came back up with bubbles in his hair. “Maybe I should try that when I get home. I have some years left at the castle before I will have to leave, so I should make the best use of those baths while I can enjoy it.” 

“You live in the castle too? My friends thought that was ‘weird’ when I told them I did, except for Wind who found it cool. And also Mask because he’s Mask,” War laughed, “I’ve done much weirder things. He’s judged me for far more.”

Warriors nodded. “I was just living in the barracks because I didn’t have anywhere else to go and when Zelda found out, she made me move into the castle. It’s definitely a lot better than living in the barracks and Zelda likes to say it’s helpful to have a hero nearby whenever anybody asks about it.”

“She kinda did the same thing with me,” War said quietly. “She’d said she wanted me close to have the hero nearby so she could feel protected, but I know that bit is bullshit because she could beat my ass in a sparring match any day of the week. I think she was worried about me and wanted to keep me close so she could just… Keep an eye on me.”

“Even if she couldn’t take care of herself, she still has Impa. Impa is scary. I think she was one of the ones who… handled me when I lost control the first time. At any rate, between the two of them, I don’t think I’m needed but…” He paused, chewing on his lip for a bit before he continued, “I do know that she’s pretty concerned about me and the vampire shit.” 

“Impa is scary,” War agreed, “but she’s also very protective and kind. She’s helped me a lot, with a lot of things.”

“I know my Impa cares a lot but she’s a little… blunt, I guess,” Warriors mumbled as he opened one of his bottles and dumped a handful of its contents into his hand before he started running it through his hair. “She gave me good advice but I wasn’t ready to listen to it.” 

“She’s very good at doing that,” he sighed, moving to grab the bottles he’d brought and start working on his hair as well. He knew it took a long time to care for it properly and he didn’t want Warriors to be standing around doing nothing because he’d wasted time just enjoying the water. “Giving advice you’re not ready to follow. My Impa knows me well enough to know it’ll take me a minute to realize she’s right, and she’s always waiting there to tell me again when I’m ready to hear it. I appreciate her patience. She may not always be the best at expressing that she cares with words, but her patience is a reminder that she does.”

“I know she does,” Warriors said with a sigh as he looked away from War and settled for looking at a wall instead. “I can even admit she was right but it was about my vampirism and I wasn’t feeling so great about it.”  

“What do you mean?” he asked, working soap through his hair.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” he said, keeping his eyes off of it. 

War felt his heart skip a beat in his chest, and he had to force himself to sound normal when he said, “That’s alright, you don’t have to.”

Warriors finally looked up at him again, but he only gave him a nod before he started washing his hair again. 

Full on dread welled up in him and War tried very hard not to let it show outwardly because he felt irritated with himself. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how Warriors had snapped at him last night, saying how he’d been shocked War hadn’t asked him a question since he’d been ‘so interested in the rest of the vampire bullshit’.

Those words had kept repeating in his head all night, and the entire journey from where he’d reattached Warriors’s arm to the little town where they now were. He was terrified that his inability to keep himself together had permanently made some part of Warriors irritated with him. The other hero had been nice to him today, he’d even gotten him the necklace which War now wore around his neck with the chain that held his mother’s ring, but he still felt horrible. He was interested in what Warriors had to share with him and he wanted the other man to feel like he was being listened to when he spoke. It had been his initial worry upon hearing those words that Warriors was pissed at him for not being able to focus, but the more he thought the more he got scared that that comment had been born from a frustration that War was too interested. That War’s curiosity and desire to understand something unknown so he could know how best to help had made his new friend feel like a specimen on display somewhere to be studied.

He knew exactly what it felt like to feel studied by other people, and the mere idea that he’d made Warriors feel that way made him burn with shame. 

“Can I ask why you wear the ring around your neck and not on your finger?” Warriors asked suddenly and very quietly. 

War almost jumped when he was pulled from his thoughts, but he ended up just sucking in a quick breath instead as he looked down at the two chains around his neck, the one Warriors had just given him and the one he’d been wearing since he was fifteen. 

“It’s my ma’s,” he said softly, rinsing the soap from his hands and grabbing the ring to look at it. “It doesn’t fit me, but she gave it to me the day I had to leave because she said it would keep me safe and I didn’t want to lose it, so...”

“Is it her wedding ring?” 

He nodded. “Yeah, apparently my father told her it’d keep her safe wherever he had to leave and she wanted to pass that protection on to me. I think I mentioned before that my father is gone. I don’t know what happened to his.”

“She wanted to protect you because you got drafted. That still seems weird to me,” he said quietly. 

“She didn’t want me to go,” War mumbled, trying not to think about how his mother had held him tightly, pressing a hand firmly over his ear that hadn’t been up against her shoulder so he couldn’t hear what she’d said as she argued with the guards not to take him, because he didn’t want to end up crying in front of Warriors. “She fought really hard against it but she didn’t really have a choice. I didn’t really have a choice. Some kids my age tried to run or hide but it didn’t really work, and I didn’t want to make things harder for myself than they needed to be so that morning I said goodbye and she knew there was nothing she could do, so she just insisted I take this.” It was a little hard to see the little details of the ring with how his vision was blurring with unshed tears, but he just kept staring down at it anyway for a long pause before adding very quietly, “I don’t know if there’s really anything special about it at all but it’s really important to me.”

Warriors frowned at him. “It’s a good thing you have a mother who cares about you so much. I don’t have a lot of memories of my mom but I think she would have been like yours. I think I would remember if she was anything like my aunt.” 

“I’d share her with you if I could,” War sniffed, trying to discreetly wipe at his face. “I think she’d like you, my ma. There were a lot of us growing up and we were all weird in our own ways but she was always really gentle with each of us, making sure we got what we needed no matter how ridiculous it might’ve seemed to anyone else.”

“You think your mom would like me? What about your siblings?”

“I think they would, yeah,” he nodded. “Estella gives everyone a hard time because she’s an asshole, but I still think she’d like you. She used to throw me around when we were really little… I didn’t play much with her then if I could avoid it-”

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him. “Does she have, um, redeeming qualities? Like, I would throw Wind around but only if he actually liked it. I feel like he would go for it a couple of times.” 

“To be fair I was like five and she was seven,” War laughed. “But yeah, she’s very protective and she’d make sure the old dogs didn’t jump on me back when I was terrified of them. And she carried me back to the house once when I’d fallen hard out of a tree and broke my leg. I think I was like… eight? Maybe? I don’t remember.”

“For some reason, I’m not surprised that you broke your leg that way,” Warriors mumbled, then he stuck his head back in the water to rinse his hair out. 

“Linkle dared me to climb it to prove I wasn’t scared,” he grumbled. “I did fucking climb it, I just struggled to get back down and then I fucking fell…”

Warriors smiled at him and even laughed to himself. “I get that. I once broke my nose because Legend dared me to. I didn’t have the excuse of being eight though.” 

“Oh?” War raised an eyebrow, wincing when he got soap in his eye.

“It involves a vampire thing I don’t think I told you about because I don’t think it’s something we need to worry about. I can’t enter a private home without permission. There’s an invisible wall that appears and I can’t go through it until I get an invitation. I have no idea why!” Warriors shrugged. “Anyway, Legend dared me to run into one of those invisible walls. I broke my nose, gave myself a good bump on the head, and Time and Hyrule lectured me about hurting myself on a dare.” 

“So it’s literally like a wall for you? If you don’t have permission?” he wondered, belatedly cursing himself for potentially being too nosy.

Warriors grabbed the cloth, soaked it, and rubbed at his arm perhaps a bit too aggressively. “Yeah. I can do pushups off of it. The first time we went to Wild’s house, he was unconscious and couldn’t give me permission, so I had to sleep in the inn because I physically couldn’t enter his house.” 

“Oh wow.” War blinked before ducking to wash the soap out of his hair. 

He was too nervous to ask more about how that worked, he didn’t want to make the other hero upset by asking too much, so he just focused on washing his hair. And gods, was it so nice really getting to work on his hair. Maybe if he was lucky, since he’d found a good shampoo, they’d also have some other products for him when he got out of the bath and started drying it. His curls had been an absolute mess the past few days, it’d be nice to get them to actually look good. 

War spent much more time on his hair than the rest of him, taking care to soap it up twice just so it would actually feel clean to him before running the conditioner through his curls. It was a little difficult because they’d tangle, but he managed, and it was somewhat soothing to work on. But he did also need to scrub his body, so he forced himself to move on and try to hurry so he wasn’t holding Warriors up. He was also getting a bit tired, and the warm water was making it difficult to keep his eyes open, but he knew he had to still work on his hair after he got out of the bath so he couldn’t let himself even start to drift off. There was also the fear of drowning.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but is there a reason why you dye your hair? Your natural colour is really nice and dyeing takes a lot of work,” Warriors muttered as he started to lather soap into his skin. 

War opened and closed his mouth a few times in shock. He knew he needed to fix up his roots and that a considerable amount of brown was showing, but he was so used to the weird stares or lack of comment that a compliment about his hair had taken him completely off guard.

“O- Oh, um…” he stammered out. “I guess I got kinda…? Convinced? To dye it? Back when I’d first joined the army, and I guess I just kept dyeing it because y’know, this is what the hero is expected to look like.”

Warriors chewed on his lips again. His face was a little red but War couldn’t tell if that was from the warm water or something else. “Do you still believe that after meeting the other heroes?” 

“No, not really,” he admitted. Meeting Sky, Hylia’s chosen hero, had been a shock because Sky looked more similar to him than he did to that image of the pale, blond, blue eyed hero that War had been compared to and made to feel bad about not being his whole life. Twilight looked like him too, and he didn’t think either of them were any less capable and deserving of the title of hero for it.

For some reason he struggled to apply that logic to himself. He felt trapped, because he created an image of himself after what he’d been told the hero should be and now he didn’t feel like he could break from it.

“Only three of my friends are naturally blond, and I’m not sure Legend fully counts because his hair has a real red tone to it,” he added in a grumble under his breath. 

Again, Warriors was chewing on his lips as he scrubbed his body down. When he was done, he put his head back on the pillow he made. “Have you ever thought of letting the colour grow out one day? I know nobles are generally snobby and might give you a hard time about it but maybe there will be a time when you don’t have to talk to them as much.” 

“I’d like to…” War said very quietly. “I, uh…” He trailed off, not really sure how to say that he didn’t really feel like himself or that he missed looking like his mother. He and Linkle, as they’d grown up, had turned out looking exactly like her and it was hard to recognize her face in his own when he didn’t look like him. Sometimes that made him feel horrible, like he’d lost a huge piece of himself, other times he couldn’t bare to think about his mother because of how much he missed her and not seeing her in his own reflection was the only thing that kept him from feeling insane.

“I don’t know if you’re looking for advice but maybe let your hair grow out while you’re with your brothers. I have a hard time believing they would care that much and it can’t be easy to bleach your hair on the road. It’s hard enough to find a body of water to bathe in sometimes,” Warriors muttered. He sounded kind of annoyed. 

“Yeah, it is.” War nervously crossed his arms over his middle again, really hoping the other hero was mad about how hard it was to bathe on the road and that he wasn’t irritated with War and his stupidity.

“And I can’t even enjoy it when the water outside is warmer because that’s a lot of skin to expose to the sun. I would come out looking like a bokoblin or a cooked lobster,” Warriors said with a hiss, throwing his arm out of the water as he did so. “I have to bathe at night but when I disappear for an hour or two, the others think I’m looking for blood and I’m not! That’s not even getting into the fact that some bodies of water are sacred and burn the fuck out of me.”

“Sacred things burn you?” War asked with a small frown. 

“Sacred things are basically sunlight. The only exception is the master sword and that’s because I won’t get burned immediately. It takes a couple of hours,” he said quietly as he lifted his head up to look at War. “Have you ever been to one of those springs in Twilight’s that are turquoise? There’s one right outside of Ordon.” 

“I have, yeah,” he nodded.

“You know how some of them are kind of deep?” 

“Did… Did you fall in…?” he asked very slowly, a little worried about saying the wrong thing.

“I was pushed in by our favourite shadow. The vampires said I probably would have died if I was a full vampire but because I’m only half, I was able to make a full recovery. It only took like a month for me to see again,” Warriors said with a frown.  

War was horrified, and it was hard for him to control his expression. “Oh my gods, I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“Those were the injuries that I needed more time to heal from. The shadow recovered faster than I did so my brothers had to leave me behind to carry on with the mission,” he mumbled, then looked away from War. “My brothers don’t know that I’m alright now.” 

“We’re going to find them,” War promised. He’d do whatever it took to make sure of it.

Warriors didn’t say anything but he did give War a small smile, which was an improvement over what happened the last time he made that promise to the other hero. 

He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm, and finished washing up before quickly pulling himself out of the water and wrapping himself tightly in the robe. Almost losing his balance when he bent down, he somehow managed to stay upright and grabbed a towel for his hair.

“Are we leaving now?” Warriors asked as he turned around to also pull himself out of the tub. He wrapped himself in his robe, grabbed all the supplies he used for his bath and put them back on the shelf. As he started to head back to the changing room though, he let out a sudden yelp as his foot slipped out from underneath him and he fell forward. He didn’t get his hands out in front of him, so he landed face first on the wet floor. 

War jumped at the sound, clasping a hand over his mouth as he carefully walked over, not wanting to slip himself because he wouldn’t be very useful to Warriors if he did. “Are… Are you alright?”

Warriors groaned as he slowly and very carefully lifted himself off of the floor a bit, resting on his forearm. Blood was dripping from his nose and it was already dripping on the floor. “I just took a fucking bath!” he hissed as he tried in vain to use his free hand to cover up his nose so it wouldn’t drip more blood onto the floor. 

“Oh shit,” he mumbled, crouching down next to the other hero. “Think it’s broken? Do you want me to look at it?”

“Please,” Warriors mumbled quietly as he drew his hand away from his nose.

He had a feeling it was broken the second he looked at it and saw it was already starting to swell. It wasn’t too bad yet, but it was definitely a little swollen. Warriors’s nose didn’t look crooked, at least not that he could see.

“Can I touch?” he asked, wanting to try to assess how bad it was. War knew the other hero would be able to heal faster than the normal person, but that might end up being a bad thing if something in his nose had moved into a bad spot that would cause breathing problems for him or something.

“Go ahead,” he mumbled, lifting his head up so that it was more or less parallel with the floor. He didn’t tilt his head back but he didn’t tilt it forward either. 

It made it incredibly difficult for War, it would’ve been much easier if he was sitting up, but he didn’t wanna push it with the things he was asking of the other hero so he just took extra care to be careful despite the fact that Warriors was still on the ground. He didn’t want to put any pressure on Warriors’s nose in case that majorly fucked something up, so he just gently brushed his finger along the side of it, trying to feel for any bump that shouldn’t be there or to see if it he could feel it shift at all. Sure enough, he felt something under the skin as he got closer to the tip of Warriors’s nose, and he grimaced when he heard a small sound as it shifted slightly.

“Can you breathe in slowly for me?”

Warriors stayed quiet but he did as he was told, breathing slowly but deeply through his nose and breathing out of his mouth. 

“Did that feel alright? Could you get enough air through both sides?”

Warriors took another deep breath as he tried to force himself to sit up. “Well enough,” he mumbled quietly. 

War helped him sit, making sure he didn’t fall back down. “I need you to be fully honest and descriptive if you can, because it’s definitely broken and it might be okay to heal on its own because it doesn’t look crooked or anything, but if you can’t breathe well then it might not be aligned as well as it looks.”

He let out a sigh, and took another deep breath. “It’s a little harder to breathe on the left side than the right side,” he admitted. 

“Okay,” War whispered, trying to look at his nose from another angle to see if he was missing anything. “We should clean up and head back, I’ll try to get a better look at it there as long as you can still breathe.”

“Yeah… sounds good,” Warriors mumbled quietly, trying to wipe some of the blood away with his hands before he stood up. “Ugh, I don’t want to use any of their towels. I think I have some rags in my bag…” 

“Do you want me to go grab them for you?” he asked, getting to his feet himself.

“Yeah, I’m going to wash my face.” Carefully, he headed back to the tub. 

War nodded in response, heading back to the changing area where they’d left their things so he could grab the other hero’s bag. The rags were towards the top, and he was grateful for it because he felt weird going through Warriors’s things even if he’d been given permission to get something for him. He headed back to the bath as soon as he’d grabbed them and held them up so the other hero could see as he came closer.

“I can help clean up?” he offered, pointing at where there was blood on the floor.

“Give me one first,” Warriors mumbled, holding his arm out. 

War handed it to him, wanting to make sure he actually got it and it didn't end up in the water before he went to go clean up the floor. There was a decent amount of blood on the tile, but War was pretty sure there’d been even more of it on Warriors himself. It wasn’t too hard to clean, nothing a few rags couldn’t handle, and by the time he’d finished wiping it up it looked like Warriors was about done washing his face.

“The bleeding stopped at least. Did I get all of it?” Warriors asked once he returned from the tub. 

He nodded, folding up the rags so that he wouldn’t get blood on anything else as he walked over to grab the bottles he’d borrowed so he could stick them back up on the shelf with the other products where he’d found them. With his hand still lingering on one of the bottles, he noticed another product meant to be left in to help with curly hair. The corner of his mouth turned down in a frown, it would be nice to really take the time to take care of his hair so it didn’t look horrible and feel horrible, but he needed to make sure his friend's face was okay, and that was kind of more important.

“I’ll be waiting in the changing room,” Warriors said, grumbling something else to himself that War couldn’t quite hear before the other hero disappeared. 

“Right behind you,” War called, backing away from the shelf and following after him. He wasn’t sure what to do with the bloody rags so he just held on to them, setting them on the bench so he could properly dry himself off and change. He wished he would’ve had the time to get some of that product but he knew he could take forever with his hair, so he just scrunched his curls with the towel to dry them and prayed they wouldn’t look to awful when he woke up in the morning. 

Warriors finished changing first. “It was still a nice time despite breaking my fucking nose,” he said. “Lost my arm and broke my nose. What fucking luck.”

“I’m really sorry,” War said softly. It took him a little longer because he had to put his dagger back in its spot against his thigh and bundle himself up to brace the cold air, but he hurried to get himself together so Warriors wouldn’t have to wait.

The other hero shrugged as he grabbed the bloody rags and shoved them into his bag. “None of it is your fault.” 

Hands now free, War anxiously cracked his knuckles and grumbled very quietly, “Well, arguably it is my fault you lost your arm.”

“Nope,” Warriors answered without any hesitation. He looked over War quickly, then stepped out into the hallway. Warriors handed the key back at the front desk and signed his name in the book again. With nothing else left to do with the bathhouse, they headed outside. 

With his hair still wet, the cold was genuinely miserable, and War pulled his scarf tighter around himself as he shivered. Stupid mountain towns and the way they could make him feel like his bones had frozen. It didn’t seem to matter that the inn was just across the street, without the sun in the sky to provide any kind of warmth he’d found himself freezing. He was still shaking a little bit even after they’d gotten back up to the room, which he found stupid and annoying because he was out of the cold, why couldn’t he warm up?

“Blanket?” War turned around and found Warriors holding out the blanket he had the whole time he knew the man. “I can see you shaking. I only really need the one on my bed.” 

“Oh, thanks,” he whispered as he took it, wrapping it tightly around his shoulders before adding with a dry laugh, “Not sure why I’m incapable of staying warm.”

“We went from somewhere really nice and warm to outside, which is kind of cold. You might have not been as cold if the change wasn’t so drastic,” Warriors said with a shrug as he took his boots off and hopped onto his bed. He rubbed at his eyes and winced when his hand got too close to his nose. “Do we still have potions?”

“We do, yeah,” War mumbled, heading over to the things he’d left behind and pulling out a half filled bottle for the other hero. “Is it okay if I look at it again? Just to make sure I didn’t miss something seriously wrong with it? I don’t want it to like heal wrong or something.”

Warriors nodded, grabbing the bottle but he just kept it in his hands instead of opening it. “Let’s see how bad it is, I guess. I think my body would fix it if it did heal wrong since I should always go back to the way I was when I was cursed, but I don’t want to find out how it would do that.” 

“Can you tilt your head back?” He asked, wanting to try to see if there was any reason why Warriors was having trouble breathing from one side of his nose.

Warriors quietly did as he asked. “How bad is it?”

It was hard to see because of how dark it was in the room, even with some light, but War was good at making educated guesses at this point. “The one side does look a little smaller than the other, either because of swelling or you have a deviated septum. It’s hard to tell.”

“Really? Fuck,” he mumbled to himself. “I don’t think a potion would fix it if it’s a deviated septum but my face hurts. Blood might be better, so maybe I should just wait.” He chewed on his lips as he thought about it. 

“You think it would heal up properly if you got blood?” War wanted to clarify.

“I already had some today,” he said, looking War in the eyes with a frown. “But yes, it might work better. Maybe I’ll take a potion tomorrow if my face still hurts when I wake up.”

“Is there some reason you can’t have more?” He raised an eyebrow curiously. “Because I don’t mind if you need some, you didn’t get that much from me earlier anyway and I don’t want you to fuck up your nose or something.”

Warriors rolled his eyes and passed the potion bottle back. “It’s not that I can’t have more, it’s that you’re still my only reliable source of blood and I can’t just drain you of it whenever I get hurt, nor will it make my regeneration go much faster when I already had some. What I took already should help, my body just needs some time.” 

The potion bottle felt heavy in his hand and he felt bad for irritating his friend, but he refused to let the jumbled up distressing things he was feeling show on his face so he just quietly said, “Oh, okay. I understand.”

Warriors opened his mouth to say something, then shut his mouth and settled for biting his lips with his fangs. “Are you good if I go to sleep now?” he asked quietly. 

He nodded, already on his way to his own bed because he’d been exhausted when he woke up that morning and doing nothing all day hadn’t done much to fix that for him. War almost never went to bed with wet hair, in fact he actively had something against it and would force himself to stay up until his body just quit on him to avoid it, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. He just wanted to sleep, and his hair was probably going to be a frizzy mess anyway so what did it really matter.

“Sleep well, War,” Warriors said. 

“You too,” he mumbled, crawling into bed and curling up, facing the wall. “And thanks again for the blanket.”

He couldn’t hear if Warriors responded because the second he laid his head down he was out.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up feeling strangely… supported. He had a pillow under his head, which he was clutching tightly with his right hand while his left arm was underneath it. Along his back, he could feel something not quite solid but oddly sturdy. Instead of trying to figure out what that was, his first instinct was to look for War, who thankfully wasn’t far. He was curled up on his bed, facing the wall. 

Once he confirmed that War was in the room, he tried to look outside their window to see what time it was but all he could see were dark clouds and rain pouring down the side of the window. 

“War?” he called out. 

He couldn’t tell if the other hero was awake or not, he just watched as War shifted around a little before falling still again. Maybe the other hero went to bed late and that was why he had a hard time getting up. Either way though, he thought it was interesting that War was the one who had a hard time waking up lately. 

Warriors groaned as he slowly sat up. It turned out that the sturdy thing behind his back was his bedroll and some pillows all rolled up in an extra blanket. Once he was out of bed, he located a mirror in their room to see how his face was doing after he broke his nose. He yelped in surprise when he found his yellow and red eyes staring back at him. 

War shot straight up at the noise, eyes wide and dagger in hand as he looked wildly around the room before he saw Warriors and let out a sigh, slumping back against his pillows.

“Sorry,” he said slowly as he retracted his fangs. 

“Ai minhas deusas.” The other hero’s words slurred together a little as he grumbled. “You okay?”

“I didn’t know my fangs were out so I wasn’t expecting to see the weird vampire eyes in the mirror,” he answered with a frown. “It’s nothing. You can go back to sleep if you want.” 

“How’s your nose?” War asked with a small groan as he pushed himself to be more upright, squinting at him as he did.

“It doesn’t hurt but I only just got up, so I haven’t really looked at it. It’s still a little harder to breathe from the left side but it's easier to breathe today than it was yesterday,” he muttered as he turned around to glare at himself in the mirror again before deciding that maybe War should be the one looking at it. Warriors had no idea if it looked better because he didn’t look at his reflection the night before, so he didn’t have anything to compare it to. “Did you want to look at it?”

“Yeah,” War nodded, moving his legs under the covers and gesturing for Warriors to come to him. Warriors walked over and sat on his bed, pulling his legs up so he was sitting with his legs crossed and facing War. 

He felt kind of bad for making War work on him again. It was starting to feel like he couldn’t have a day where he wasn’t injured or recovering from being injured in some way. He didn’t regret taking bad hits for War but did he really have to slip? It felt a little silly to bust his nose from a slip when the last two injuries were for a good reason. 

“You don’t mind, right?”

“Of course not,” War frowned. “I want to make sure you’re alright. Do you mind if I touch?”

He nodded. “I think you spent more time patching me up then we spent travelling so far. I don’t regret taking bad hits but who breaks their nose slipping on the floor?” 

“Well, I think it was you who said it earlier,” War laughed as he gently reached up to feel his nose. “We’re Links, shit goes wrong.”

Warriors resisted the urge to roll his eyes at him. “What’s the damage?” 

“I’m not feeling the bump I was yesterday,” he told him, the teasing tone completely gone from his voice, and he tilted his head to get a better look, “but I think you do have a deviated septum. The swelling’s gone down enough that I don’t think it could be that anymore.”

“Well fuck,” he mumbled. Warriors was sure that his body would do whatever it did when it needed to regenerate but he didn’t know what that would look like for a deviated septum. Maybe he only felt better because the swelling went down and not because it straightened itself out at all. “I’m guessing there’s nothing you can do to help it?” 

“Only thing I can do at this point is offer blood and hope your body can heal it on its own,” War sighed. 

“You really like offering blood, don’t you? My brothers are the same, though,” he mumbled, tapping his fingers against his leg. 

“It doesn’t hurt me and you need it,” the other hero frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why wouldn’t I offer something I have that could help you?”

“The bite itself might not hurt that much but you still need it too. Not having blood kills people! Honestly, I’ve been kind of spoiled. I usually just hunt for monsters and that gets rid of a threat and feeds me,” he said with a shrug. “It’s kind that you offer it but you need to mind your health too.”

“I’m fine, I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t think I could afford to give you blood.”

“And Twilight thought the same thing and he fucking fainted. I thought I seriously hurt him even though I didn’t drink much of it but he just forgot he was injured before and only had enough blood to feel fine. He didn’t remember that he didn’t have enough to spare,” Warriors said quietly, trying to keep his voice calm and controlled. He didn’t want War to think he was mad at him when he was just concerned. He was concerned for a while, he just did a bad job sounding concerned as of late. 

“I’m not the rancher,” War grumbled. “And I haven’t been injured in any way you don’t know about. I’m fine and you need it, and I know you’ll stop if I tell you to.”

Warriors wasn’t sure if he was able to hide the shock on his face. He explained why he was concerned and it felt like War barely acknowledged it and just seemed annoyed instead. He kind of felt like he was being reprimanded for just being concerned. He did his best to school his expression but even though he was trying to look calm and collected, he wasn’t even sure what to say. All he could really do was bite his lips. 

“I’m sorry,” the other hero whispered, shifting away on the bed so he could pull his legs up to his chest. “I… Fuck. I’m sorry.”

“It’s… fine,” he mumbled slowly. It really wasn’t - he couldn’t help but to feel hurt, but he didn’t think War could handle it if he said that out loud. He already looked crushed. He tried to offer a smile and brush it all off. “I’m used to looking for other sources of blood anyway and I don’t really feel like I need it right now anyway. It can wait a little.” 

“Okay,” War said so softly he almost missed it.

“You…” He took a deep breath, trying to find his next words. “You know that I’m just… concerned, right? I’m not mad, I’m just concerned. Like, how I’m doing is not the only thing that matters here. It’s also how you’re doing… and you don’t seem to be doing that good…” 

“Oh…” he watched War’s eyes widen in shock. He really must’ve thought Warriors was upset with him. Now he had an idea of how War must have been feeling. 

“I’m sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I was mad. I’ve been in a lot of pain from everything that’s been happening lately but I shouldn’t have taken any of that out on you because you were just trying to help. I’m still just trying to get used to getting help at all…” He looked away from War. He was starting to feel horribly raw and vulnerable and he hated it, but he couldn’t stand the idea that War was probably internalizing all of that too. 

“I know you’ve been in a lot of pain,” War said quietly, “and that’s not your fault. You’ve been a lot kinder to me than a lot of the soldiers I’ve worked on before, I mean gods, you haven’t thrown anything at my head or grabbed me by the neck because I fucked something up, not that I think you would do either of those things because you’re much kinder than that. I don’t know why I’ve been so bothered by a few words. I guess they just really got in my head and they won’t leave.” War started anxiously pulling his shirt collar further away from his neck as he spoke.

“Which words? What did I say that bothered you so much?” he asked gently. 

“I think it was the comment from the other day about me not being interested in the vampire stuff,” the other man whispered, letting his chin rest on his knees as he stared blankly across the room.

Oh. That one. He should have guessed. He knew he crossed a line with that. Warriors knew that he should haven’t said it as soon as he said it but then he kept going. It wasn’t his best moment. 

“I shouldn’t have been so snippy about it but I said that because it was really weird that you didn’t seem all that interested in it at that moment. Like, it just… felt wrong. You went from listening to everything I had to say about it and asking questions to sounding like you didn’t really care. You also said that you were fine but I knew you couldn’t be if there was something new you could learn about vampires and you didn’t really say anything about it…” He chewed on his lips again with fangs he didn’t realize slipped out again. 

“I don’t want to make you feel like people back home make me feel,” War mumbled, raising a hand to anxiously scratch at his forearm. “Like… Like you’re just some problem that needs to be solved that no one knows what to do with. I just wanted to help, I just want to help. I’m interested because I want to understand so I don’t do something that would hurt you, but I was too overwhelmed the other day to really do much and I don’t even remember much of what ended up happening. You only got hurt because of me and this is the second time.”

“I can’t say it was a conscious choice the second time around but I would have done the same thing if I was in control. You don’t have to punish yourself for my choices, War,” Warriors said, still trying to be gentle since he knew that War didn’t exactly feel great about the fact that he needed to be helped at all during a battle. “For what it’s worth though, I never got the feeling that I was a problem that needs to be solved or anything like that. My brothers are much the same… Sometimes, talking and comparing notes are the only way I get to learn anything about myself. I’m the only half-vampire anybody knows about, so all most people can do is guess things about me.”

“Oh,” he whispered, but his fingers kept scratching at his arm and Warriors wondered if he was even aware he was starting to leave marks where his nails irritated the skin.

“War, be careful with your arm.” He held out his hand out but then he thought better of it and shoved it his hands into his lap. He still wasn’t sure if War liked touch and it wasn’t the time or place to figure that out.

War jumped, sticking his hand on the bed next to him and staring down at his scratched up forearm in shock.

“Is there any way I can help? You helped me a lot, surely I can return the favour somehow?” Warriors asked. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I feel stupid, and I was an ass, and I shouldn’t need help.”

“I forgive you and really, I don’t mind you asking me about all the vampire stuff. If I don’t want to answer, or if I find it annoying, I will let you know.” That wasn’t much of a solution though, was it? It felt like more of the same conversation that wasn’t helping him. Maybe if he was scratching himself, keeping his hands busy might help? “Do you want something to work on, maybe? My chain mail is still broken from the icicle and I did buy extra rings to repair it…”

“Yeah,” War sniffed, running his hands down his face before letting out a sigh. “Yeah, I can fix that for you.”

Warriors didn’t say anything as he got off the bed and went to his own where his chain mail was hanging off against the footboard. He carried that over to War, then fetched his bag to look for the small satchel of rings that he purchased just the day before. It took longer than he would care to admit to find them, since his bad habit of just shoving everything into his bag somehow shuffled the replacement rings to the bottom of it.

“There we go!” he exclaimed as he held up his prize and tossed it onto War’s bed. “You need me to step out for a bit?”

“You don’t have to stay,” the other hero said quietly, “if you’d rather go out and explore or do something else.”

Warriors simply nodded. “I’ll be back by dinner.” With that, he walked out of the room. Since it looked dark and rainy outside of the window, he didn’t think he needed his mask, so he left without it. He didn’t plan on going too far, so he could always go back to the inn if he felt his face tingle. He stepped out of the inn and just sat outside of it under the overhanging roof, watching the rain from the safety of a dry spot and the oddly empty street. 

His brothers always complained about the rain, especially if they were in Wild’s era, but he never really minded it. The chances of sun and rain being present weren’t zero, he saw the horrid mix before, but it didn’t happen often. Sure, Warrior got wet and sometimes the rain ruined his hair, but rain usually meant that he got a break from the sun. He appreciated the break back then and he appreciated it even more after the spring in Twilight’s era burnt a good portion of his skin off. 

He didn’t know how long he spent outside before the inn door opened and one of the innkeepers poked her head out and smiled when she spotted him. “Oh good, you didn’t go far. Dinner is ready.” 

“Dinner?” he asked quietly. How long was he asleep for? Warriors wasn’t awake for that long so he must have slept in pretty late. He couldn’t believe War let him sleep in for that long. 

“It’s about five in the evening. Come in, we have soup! Perfect for a rainy day, don’t you think?” 

“Yeah.” He nodded. Soup and rain were quite the pair. Warriors followed her back inside where there was already a tray with two bowls of soup on it. 

“I’ll carry it to your room, just keep the door open for me, alright?” she asked with a smile. Warriors only nodded again. He was still a little surprised that the innkeepers were so nice. It wasn’t exactly a small place, so he wasn’t sure how they found the time to be so personable with all of their visitors. 

Once he got up to their room, he slowly opened the door and held it out. “Dinner, apparently,” he explained as the innkeeper walked in and set their tray down by all the fruit Warriors left on that table. 

“Enjoy your dinner!” she said with a wave before she left the room and closed the door behind her. 

“I was going to stay out longer…” 

“It’s okay,” War said softly, still working on fixing his chainmail, “you can go back out later if you want?”

“Only if you need more space,” Warriors said as he took one of the bowls and sat down on the floor with his back pressed against War’s bed. The soup was still pretty hot and knowing his luck lately, he didn’t want to risk spilling any of it on War’s bed. The floor would be easier to clean up, at least. The soup seemed to be made of just vegetables and beans but it was still really creamy and there were still some carrots that hadn’t gone completely soft, so he had something he could still chew on. “I wasn’t doing much outside anyway. I just like sitting outside in the rain sometimes since it’s a break from the sun.” 

“I don’t mind if you stay,” War told him, “but if you were enjoying the rain, don’t feel like you can’t go back. You deserve to enjoy being outside without having to worry.”

“It would be better if I had somebody to talk to,” he said without thinking much of it. He shoved another spoon of soup into his mouth before adding, “I also had no idea it was near dinner time. How late did I sleep in?” 

“I wasn’t really paying attention to the time,” War mumbled, setting the chainmail aside so he could grab his soup bowl, “I’m sorry. I woke up and I checked on you and then I went back to sleep.”

“It’s fine. My brothers never wake me up and you probably needed it. They don’t have an excuse,” Warriors grumbled, rolling his eyes. “We probably should stay inside during rain anyway. We definitely would have found monsters and then we would have to fight in mud. Quite frankly, I don’t even trust myself with soup on the bed right now.”

“I think another night in a bed could be good for both of us,” the other hero said quietly.

It would mean more delays for them but he agreed. They were both exhausted and at least for Warriors, it wasn’t entirely because of all the recent injuries he had. “Did we pay for another night in bed?”

“I did,” he nodded, “yes.”

“Oh,” he said simply. Maybe it really was because of the rain and not because he slept in. If War went back to sleep, he must have paid some time ago. He wouldn’t know how late Warriors ended up sleeping. “I guess that’s why they knew to make sure we got a serving of dinner.”

“I didn’t know how late you would be sleeping so I paid for an extra night, I figured even if we didn’t stay another full night it’d be nice to have the option to and the innkeepers really have been so kind…” War mumbled, stirring his soup around in the bowl. “And I didn’t want to wake you because admittedly I’ve been feeling like shit, plus I woke up with an awful headache this morning, so I took an opportunity to rest while you slept so you could heal.”

Warriors always hated being the reason why the others had to stay put for a day but it was hard to argue when he wasn’t the only one who needed a break. He didn’t always believe it when the others said they needed a break but with War, he could. 

“Well, I guess if both need it, then it isn’t a bad idea. If we’re both well enough, we really should get moving again tomorrow after breakfast.” Hopefully, he won't sleep in again. He didn’t usually sleep in like that twice in a row but ‘usually’ didn’t seem to matter so much on this adventure. 

They ate in silence for a moment before War spoke again. “I really am sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to be dismissive, I didn’t think what I said would come out sounding like that.”

“You’re forgiven,” he said. “Really, it’s alright. I know you were just concerned and trying to help.” He was hurt by the dismissive tone but he was still truly glad that War was supportive of his vampirism. War could have decided that it was too much to deal with and left him behind. “I am also concerned. I can’t stand the thought of my stupid curse hurting people.” 

“You said Twilight passed out?” War asked quietly.

He nodded but he stared in his bowl of soup instead of looking at War. “It turned out that he didn’t have blood to spare but I thought I seriously hurt him, that I went overboard and drank too much and somehow missed all the signs. The others want me to be open about my needs but sometimes I have a hard time trusting that they’ll be honest with me. I just don’t want to hurt anybody. That would actually make me a monster and not just feel like one.” 

“I’m sorry,” the other hero whispered. “That must’ve been terrifying.”

“It was and I just yelled at everybody and left for a few hours to clear my head. I thought he lied just to please me, like my health is more important than his when I have options. He just forgot but the whole thing could have been avoided if he was honest about getting injured in the first place,” he said before stuffing more soup into his mouth. It was hard to completely blame Twilight for what happened, especially since he did seem truly sorry, but Warriors couldn’t help but to still be a little upset with how avoidable it was. He had no idea why Twilight thought it was a good idea to hide an injury.

“Your health is important too but yeah I understand why you were frustrated.” War took a small sip of his soup.

“It didn’t have to be his blood. If I knew, I would have asked Time or Sky instead. I could have also asked Wild since he always has blood from monsters on him in case I really fuck up. We can make it work without anybody sacrificing their health but being sacrificial idiots is kind of a Link thing.” 

“Oh yeah,” War frowned, “you normally have a bunch of people you can get blood from.” 

“And Wild always gets blood when he’s harvesting from monsters. I guess I haven’t really adjusted to not having them around to help me yet…” he mumbled. Logically, he knew he only had War and whatever blood they happened to find along the way, but he hadn’t truly appreciated the fact that all his brothers had their little ways of helping him. 

“Ah…” the other hero said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

They sat in silence after that, finishing their dinner and putting the bowls back on the tray for Warriors to take down. When he came back, War was working on his chain mail again, so he just sat on his own bed and just watched. “I feel like I wasted the whole day sleeping for that long.” 

“It’s okay,” War gave him a small smile, “I wasn’t lying when I said I needed the rest too. Besides, you warned me you sleep a lot.”

“Oh, when I said I don’t wake up well? Sleeping for a long time is part of it but not all of it,” he said. 

War raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh?”

He bit his lips as he tried to think of the best way to explain it. Warriors knew he should warn him because it could easily happen again. “I’ve bitten Wild once when he tried to wake me up but apparently he suspected I would do that because he wore bracers that my fangs couldn’t get through. Maybe I’ve tried to bite him more times but I’m only aware of the one time because I woke up with his arm in my mouth.”

The other hero stared at him with wide eyes. “You’ve bitten people in your sleep?”

“One person that I’m aware of and Wild was very determined to wake me up. He said I was asleep for two days straight, so it was probably a good thing that he did wake me up…” he explained with a shrug.  “But I did bite him for doing it.” 

Big hazel eyes still stared at him in shock, and it was difficult to tell if War was more startled about the fact that he’d slept for two days or still over the fact that he’d bitten Wild.

He felt his ears warm up a bit but he continued, “Actually, now that I think about it, everybody probably just lets me sleep so that they don’t get bitten even though it only happened once. It’s also fortunate that I’ve been able to wake up without much prompting lately.” 

“Do you just…? Not like being woken up…?” War asked.

“Nope,” he answered, shaking his head. “But my vampire mentor thinks it has something to do with me being only half-vampire. I know I need sleep to heal but sleeping as much as I do sometimes isn’t normal for hylians and apparently, it’s not normal for vampires either. Just one of those things that people can only speculate about. It would be nice if I knew why so I can plan around it. Zelda and Impa have to make excuses for me if there is a day where I just can’t wake up on time to do any of my duties.”

Warriors bit his lips again, this time hard enough to taste some blood. He was lucky that he had Zelda and Impa with him back home and that he had his brothers to cover for him when needed but he wished they didn’t need to do that. 

“Is there anything that makes you more tired than usual? Or does the exhaustion just catch up with you sometimes?” War asked carefully, like he was still a little nervous about asking questions now.

“Mostly the latter, I think. Sometimes I can go quite a few days with only three to five hours of sleep every night and barely feel tired, and then there are days where I wake up at like four in the afternoon. I don’t feel super tired the night or before or anything, I just don’t wake up in the morning,” he answered with a simple shrug. He didn’t really mind that War asked so he tried to keep his expressions neutral. “I always sleep longer in safe places, like the ranch or an inn, and I already told you that I need sleep in order to heal. I guess that’s what happened today since I broke my nose.” 

“Huh,” War frowned as he thought about what Warriors just said. “I kinda do that too, I mean with the not sleeping a whole lot and then sleeping much longer in safe places. Obviously it’s not the exact same but… Maybe to an extent some of that is just because of the kind of lives we live. But if your body needs sleep it needs sleep, I don’t mind waiting for you to get the rest you need.”

“Maybe if I woke up before noon and we still had some time to travel. It would take us a long time to get to the castle if we waste a whole day because I slept in,” he huffed as he ran a hand through his hair. He could only hope that he didn’t need too many crash days but he would feel awful if he kept dragging them behind. 

“Are you feeling better? Physically? After getting so much sleep?” War asked.

“I don’t really feel that much different but maybe that’s just because I haven’t really done anything today. That or… I really did need this extra day. A lot has happened in just the past two days alone.” Usually, he just had one big injury to heal from but he lost an arm and broke his nose. Before that, he was impaled by an icicle. It was a lot of injuries to heal from and just this week alone. 

“I also mean with your nose and your arm, and how they’re feeling,” the other hero added, looking back down at the chain mail he was working on.

“Oh… Arm is alright I guess. The only thing I couldn’t really do was hold something heavy on it yesterday so it should be fine now. Nose is still fucked since it’s harder to breathe on my left still. I guess it doesn’t hurt that much but you saw it,” he mumbled, raising a hand to press his fingers against his nose. Touching it wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t painless either. 

“I’m glad it’s hurting less,” War mumbled.

Warriors nodded, stretched himself out so he was on his side, and let his mind wander for a little bit as he watched War work. He didn’t seem to be close to finishing but the icicle did do a lot of damage both to him and his chain mail. 

He tried to think back to what War asked earlier - was it more than just exhaustion that made him the sleepiest Link in the group? He thought he knew all of the factors but there could just be something that slipped his mind. He was half-vampire, which his mentor thought was a contributing factor, he didn’t always give himself the rest he needed, and he needed it to heal. He was also a young vampire, practically a baby in comparison to all the vampires in the estate. 

“Maybe one of the reasons why I sleep a lot is because I’m a baby vampire. Maybe baby vampires are like baby hylians and they spend a great deal of their day sleeping.” 

“You’re a baby vampire?” War asked, glancing over at him quickly as he fiddled with a chain link.

“War, vampires can live for several centuries. The younger ones in Hyrule are at least a few centuries old. I’ve been a vampire for three years.” 

“Oh.” He blinked. “I guess that does make you pretty young for a vampire.”

“Supposedly, a lot of stuff should get easier for me when I’m older but that’s a whole ninety-seven years away. Maybe I’ll sleep less but I should have better control over myself… However, nobody has time to wait for that,” he mumbled as he turned in bed so he was facing the ceiling instead, resting his arms on his chest as he did so. 

“I didn’t realize vampires lived so long,” War said quietly. “It must be weird to imagine what you can do with all that time.”

“Vampires can’t die of old age. We just don’t age. I’m going to look like I’m twenty until something else kills me,” Warriors said with a sigh. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I have to leave the military in a few years when people will start noticing I don’t age. I have a lot of time but I can’t even fathom what to do with it all.”

“You have the other vampires right? So you won’t be alone?” the other hero asked, frowning at him.

Warriors let out a sigh. He wouldn’t be alone, he knew he always had a home with the vampire, but that didn’t give him something to do. “I do but they mostly just stay at their estate. I’m used to travelling around a lot, you know? I have a place to go and a support system but there’s still the question of what I could be doing… or even should be doing.” 

“I understand being used to traveling a lot, and not wanting to stay in one place too long. Maybe you could still do that?”

“Just travel without a goal?” he asked quietly. He never really considered travelling just for travelling sake. Warriors always had somewhere he needed to go, something that he needed to do at one location or another. He was always sent around for battles, to protect supplies going to one fort or another, or do whatever the military needed him to do. His current adventure with his brothers was a bit more meandering than he was used to but they always had the goal of finding a place to rest or resupply or finding clues somewhere. They had a goal, just not a clear way to reach it. With War, they were going to the castle. There was always a destination.

“I mean you could,” War shrugged. “Or you could keep doing what it is we do and fight monsters. Those seem to always be around, so you don’t get bored.”

“I guess,” he mumbled, but he wasn’t entirely sold on it. It was definitely better than just sitting around at the estate if he ever felt restless but he couldn’t help but to wonder if there was something else for him. Warriors was a vampiric hero. He found it hard to believe the gods wouldn’t do something with that fact… or maybe something about it. “Speaking of travelling though, how about we explore this place one more time?” 

“Sure,” War nodded, looking Warriors’s chainmail over quickly before setting it down and standing up so he could straighten out his tunic. “Anywhere in particular you wanted to go?”

“Maybe a tavern or something? It’s been a while since I’ve had alcohol that I actually drank myself,” Warriors said as he sat up and hopped to his feet. “Are you well enough to go?” 

“I’m alright,” the other hero told him, “and I’m always down for a drink.”

Warriors didn’t know War well enough to know if that was a problem or not. It wasn’t uncommon for people in his era to cope with alcohol and he doubted it was different in War’s era. However, he was inclined to trust War - he only had one drink the one time Warriors did see him drink. 

“Let’s go then. I’m sure the innkeepers will tell us where to find it if we ask.”

As it turned out the tavern wasn’t too far from the inn. It was further than the bathhouse was, but it was still on the main road of the town, which War was thankful for because it was still a bit wet outside even if it wasn’t raining as hard as it had been earlier. He walked a little too quickly to get there and get out of the rain, causing his knee to ache, but he didn’t really care and he didn’t stop until he reached the door, pulling it open and holding it so Warriors could go inside.

“Do you want a table or do you want to sit up at the bar?” he asked as he pushed his messy curls out of his face and let the door close behind him.

“I prefer the table. It’s more private and we can see the door better,” he answered as he looked around the bar. “I guess we don’t have to worry too much about the door in a time where nobody knows us though.” 

“Table is good,” War nodded. On top of the reasons Warriors had given, it was also just quieter and he wasn’t sure he was in the mood to be next to the people up at the bar. He could practically hear exactly what they were saying from all the way over at the door if he bothered to focus on their conversation, and he much preferred to have a little table in a corner somewhere.

Once they sat down he spent a minute thinking about what he was in the mood for. He did really enjoy his whiskey, but maybe they’d have a good wine or something for him. Ultimately he ended up deciding on a whiskey and Warriors got a bottle of wine, and while he waited for that he grabbed a few cashews out of his bag to chew on and stared at the wall.

Warriors glanced at the cashews with a quirked eyebrow. “More cashews, huh? You like them that much?” 

“Used to also keep peanuts,” he sighed, “but Wind is very allergic to those and I don’t wanna hurt him so, just the cashews now.”

“Sometimes I think if you could survive eating only cashews and oranges, that’s what you would do,” Warriors said with a sigh. 

“I don’t think you’d be happy to learn I did eat exclusively oranges for several days in a row on multiple different occasions,” War mumbled under his breath without thinking. 

“What? How do you not die or get sick from malnutrition?” Warriors asked quietly, though a little sternly. “I can get away with that since there’s only one thing I actually need but it was hard to stick to only that.” 

“I did get sick,” he huffed, propping an elbow up on the table so he could rest his chin against his palm. “I just physically couldn’t eat anything else and it was hard enough for me to eat the oranges as it was. It’s not like I do it on purpose, I don’t want to be stuck feeling weak and useless and sick all the time. I’d rather be able to eat like a normal person, but sometimes that’s hard so I do my best to make sure I’m getting something.”

Warriors frowned but he had a look in his eyes that War couldn’t quite read. “Sorry,” he mumbled. After a moment of hesitation, he continued, “Do you think our war experiences are different? Since you ended up with more scars from Volga, maybe there’s more that’s different?” 

“Yeah, I guess they could be,” War frowned. It was weird to think about how they went through something so similar, but with how they were two very different people and how one thing was already so different, it was easy to think that maybe their experiences had been different as well. “It would make sense if they were.”

“We lost against Ganondorf at the castle,” Warriors started as he winced, “because Zelda accidentally shot me with one of her light arrows and I was… you know… cursed.” 

“Oh shit,” War whispered. “Did he take the triforce from you too?”

Warriors nodded. “Luckily, it didn’t change the nature of the curse, but Zelda got me good. It took a while to recover from that and Hyrule was in danger the entire time I was stuck in bed.”

“That’s really awful, I’m so sorry,” he said quietly. He’d been caught by friendly fire more times than he could count but he’d never had to worry about a curse making things worse.

“Were you defeated too? At that point, it was my second time facing that bastard. The first time, we were just buying some time but the second time, when it counted, we lost,” Warriors mumbled, glancing at the bar. 

“By Ganondorf? Yeah, he threw me into the ground and took the triforce from me,” he sighed, leaving out the part of it where he’d been beaten within an inch of his life and Ganondorf only left him on the ground like he had because he hadn’t expected War to survive. War hadn’t expected to survive either. “By force. I put up as best a fight I could but it wasn’t enough. Took a long time to recover well enough to start thinking of how I was going to get the triforce away from him, we had limited healing supplies.” 

“That kind of sounds personal. Were you on the ground already when you had to fight back?” Warriors asked slowly, glaring at the bar at the bar now.

He nodded, but before he could open his mouth to speak someone from the bar had come up and set their drinks down for them, apologizing for the wait before rushing away to deal with a rather loud duo up at the bar. Warriors immediately took the glass they brought him and poured some wine into it. 

“Want to toast to something?” Warriors asked, swirling the wine in his glass. 

“Like what?” War asked, picking up his whiskey.

“Friendship? Getting to meet each other at all even though the circumstances fucking suck?” 

“The circumstances are definitely not ideal,” he laughed, “but this has been fun. The in-between moments when we’re not actively fighting for our lives, at least.”

Warriors held his glass out. “To the in-betweens that don’t suck and making a new friend with the same hero title,” he said with a wide smile.

“Hell yeah,” War grinned as he lightly touched the glasses together before taking a good sip. “Oh that’s fucking good. I needed that.”

Warriors chugged his wine back, drinking the entire glass in one go before lowering the glass to fill it up again. He swirled it in his hand but used his right arm to hold up his head on his fist. “Wine’s good too,” he said with a laugh. “Did you have Wind in the war too? Except he’s older than he is now? We called him Tune because he was always humming something. He doesn’t do it much right now though, so I guess he picks up the habit in his future.” 

“I did!” He nodded, taking another sip of his whiskey. “We called him Tune too, kid was two years younger than me then. It’s weird now that he’s so little… Bet Mask feels even weirder about it though- Tune always had this gorgeous long curly hair, and I was always so impressed by it because gods he took care of it well, and when I first met Wind he had his cut very short. He said he kept it that way so it didn’t become a mess but that he wished it could be longer, and it took me a few months to realize it but I’m the reason Tune knew so much about taking care of his hair because he picked it all up from me as Wind. It’s weird to think about how I knew him when he was older first…”

Warriors smiled at him again. “Time and I apparently taught Tune everything he knows about vam- the curse, and Tune was the one who kind of taught us a lot about the curse. I learned a lot from my mentor of course but Tune was the one who really helped to provide the context, I guess. He also knew what I needed before I was aware of it and he always had… materials available when I needed it. I fucking hate time travel sometimes,” he mumbled, chugging his glass back again. He didn’t down the whole thing but he drank a good two thirds of it. 

“He was really good with my blood sugar issues,” War snorted, “and I never even fucking questioned it because I just assumed Mask told him. First time I nearly passed out in front of him he just got me something to eat and sat with me until I could stand back up, and I thought absolutely nothing of it. It never crossed my mind he would’ve already known me, because of time travel shit. The first time I fell in front of Mask the poor kid lost it, granted so did I because I didn’t really have a good grasp of what was happening to me at that point- But no, I just assumed Mask told Tune about it.”

“Wait, so Tune wasn’t there at all when you nearly passed out in front of Mask?” Warriors asked, glancing at his drink like it was responsible for his confusion. 

“No, he hadn’t shown up yet,” he sighed. “He appeared around April after I’d turned nineteen, after I’d defeated the sorceress and we’d all thought the war was over for a moment just to find out that no, it wasn’t. He didn’t stay the whole time either, not that that was up to him because the portal just showed up to take him home and there wasn’t much he could do about it. I’d always worried about him, he was so upset he had to leave and I thought for years he must’ve been in his own era wondering what happened to us, but with Wind seeing me as I am now he must’ve known everything would be okay for the kingdom in the end.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow and chewed on his lips for a moment. “How long did he actually stay then? He came with us after we had to separate into three parties, so he was with us through the worst of it and so was Mask. I wasn’t cursed when he came.”

“A total of thirteen months, I think,” War frowned, having to think for a moment. “Mask was with me through the worst parts of that war. I tried really hard to be someone who was steady and reliable for him, but he noticed me starting to lose it at times and he’s always been a sweet kid even if he has trouble showing it and he’d do small things for me that really meant the world. Still made me upset that I couldn’t be better for him… but… I appreciated when he brought me fruits or just little rocks or flowers he thought I’d like.”

“I think you were still the best he had, maybe even to adulthood because Talon is just kind of… there,” Warriors said with a shrug. “Sad to think that the war is probably where he meets an adult who actually cares about his wellbeing. In my era, Impa had to help me take care of him. He turned out alright anyway, but is that because of me or is it in spite of everything?” He finished off the last third of his glasses and refilled. 

“He was so… angry, at first,” he mumbled, staring down at his drink. “I had a hard time understanding him, like the words he spoke. He had a thick accent I wasn’t familiar with and my Common wasn’t the best when I met him, and I think that frustrated him but eventually I started getting better and he had more patience for me. I did my best to make sure he got three meals every day, and I did everything I could to keep him alive but also let him have some fun. A war is no place for children, I didn’t want his entire childhood to be full of memories of bloodshed and misery and I know he had a tough time before he stumbled into my hands but I wanted to make sure he could actually just be a kid. I just feel bad he still felt he had to take care of me.”

Warriors frowned, swishing the wine in his glass again. “Has he told you that he felt like he had to take care of you?”

“No,” War said quietly, “he’s never said anything like that to me, but I know he worried about me a lot and that he still does, and he had to put up with me being weird and unstable.” He finished up the last of his whiskey and immediately wished he had more. “I just feel like I should’ve been better for him.”

“When people care about other people, they don’t ‘put up with them’, War. People ‘put up with’ something they don’t like or find annoying. Yeah, still not the ideal environment to grow up with but if he stuck around and he’s still fussing, it means he cares,” Warriors mumbled, then knocked back his glass again.

“I know he cares,” he sighed, setting his glass on the table and crossing his arms, “and I’m grateful for that. I just…” 

He felt like he didn’t deserve it. He felt like he’d barely been able to do the bare minimum for his brother and he was grateful that Time cared about him as much as he did but War struggled to feel like he was good enough for that. 

“I pushed him away,” War whispered. “The portal came to take him home during the last battle against Ganondorf, the last battle of the war, and the kid didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay, and I couldn’t convince him to leave and he begged me to let him stay and I told him fine. I’d been hurt pretty bad and I didn’t think we were going to win, I was sure then that that portal showed up to take him home and save his life so he didn’t die with the rest of us. So after I told him fine he could stay and he let his guard down, I pushed him. Right through the portal. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of betrayal on his face. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again… I’ve felt horrible about it for the past seven years.”

“Have you talked to him about it or have you been feeling bad for the past seven years without knowing how he feels about it now?”

“We’ve talked about it a little,” he grumbled. “I recognized him the second I saw him again but he didn’t say anything to me so I assumed either he didn’t recognize me or he was still angry about what I did. And for a while we didn’t really speak about it but eventually it got hard not to. He was mainly just worried, he had no idea if I’d survived… I’d been stabbed through right before I pushed him away, and I think that was part of why he didn’t want to leave.”

War didn’t particularly want to think too hard on all the ways he’d ever let his brother down, and he didn’t want Warriors to feel bad for him for feeling so awful so he let out a loud sigh and ordered a bottle of wine for himself when the same person who’d dropped their drinks off came back to check on them. 

“So…” Warriors started with a sip of his wine. “Did you also know Ravio from the war? Weird bunny guy and also knows Legend somehow?”

“I did, yeah,” he nodded. “He wasn’t around a whole lot but he’d pop in every now and then.” 

Ravio had somehow known his real last name and had called him that upon seeing him for the first time during the war, and to this day War still didn’t know how he’d ever found that out.

“He helped with our supply lines. He wasn’t on the front lines very often,” Warriors mumbled. “But apparently he knew I was cursed and just didn’t tell me until we met again at Legend’s house.”

“Oh really?” War raised an eyebrow before turning to thank the person who brought him his wine as they set it on the table for him.

“Apparently Lorule is full of people like me so he knew all the signs,” he said with a shrug as he drank the rest of his wine. He didn’t refill his glass though and instead, took another drink right from the bottle. “Also, his blood is actually… it’s the best. There’s no competition. It’s just the best.” 

“What makes it the best?” he asked, taking a rather large sip of his own drink

“Everything… I dunno,” Warriors slurred. “You don’t drink blood, I don’t think you would get it. But like, you know… like giving a cat fish or something.” 

“Hmm, that’s fair,” he shrugged, finishing off his first glass of wine and going to pour himself more. He was starting to feel a little tipsy but he didn’t particularly care, and Warriors didn’t seem to either.

Warriors took another gulp straight from the bottle again. “I think it’s ‘cause Legend’s blood makes me throw up and Ravio and Lorule are, like opposites to Hyrule I think? Ravio tried to explain it to me once. Anyway, the opposite of blood that makes me sick is blood that makes me feel amazing, right?” 

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Before War could think to say anything else, the loud voices behind them turned to shouts and the sound of shattering glass had him turning around in his seat to face the bar where one man had grabbed another and pinned him against the counter. The poor bartender working looked terrified, a younger looking man who might’ve been new on the job, and the kid didn’t do anything but stand there as a fight broke out and more things shattered.

“Do our heroic duties include bar fights?” Warriors grumbled, putting the bottle down as he slid his chair back, an answer to his own question. 

“I think tonight it does,” War sighed, getting to his feet and rushing over to stop the one man from beating the shit out of the guy pinned to the counter. He had no idea what had sparked the fight, and that wasn’t really any of his business, but he didn’t want the poor people working at the tavern to have to deal with a huge mess. The two men had been pretty drunk when he and Warriors had walked into the tavern, War was willing to bet they could solve their issues in the morning once they’d spent some time away from the alcohol.

In his mind he would’ve been able to get between the two and tell them to knock it off, maybe there would’ve been a little arguing but ultimately the fighting would’ve stopped. Instead he hadn’t even been able to get a word in. The bigger man had seen him coming out of the corner of his eye, and without letting the other guy up off the counter, he punched War across the face so hard he fell into a table before landing on his ass on the floor, stunned.

“Okay, okay, you think you’re one tough guy, don’t you?” Warriors growled as he grabbed the bigger man’s arm and pulled him off the other man, throwing him to the floor as he did so. He straddled the other man and grabbed both of his wrists to pin them above his head. He was using strength that War knew Warriors only possessed with his vampire powers. 

The entire left side of War’s face ached, and he wasn’t sure if his face felt wet because the blow had caused his eyes to water or if he was bleeding but he forced himself back up onto his feet, ignoring how his legs shook and how he stumbled a little. The guy who’d been pinned to the counter leapt up and tried to run at the other man but War stopped him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back.

“Hey,” he said sharply. “You know that guy?”

“Yes, I know that guy,” the man spat at him.

“Fight about it tomorrow when you’re not drunk.” War let out a grunt when the man ran at him, crashing into him, but he’d sort of been expecting it and was able to hold him back. The guy was definitely stronger than he was, and it was only because he’d drank so much that he’d become a bit uncoordinated that War was able to stop him for a moment, but he did do so successfully until someone else came to help him.

The man didn’t stop struggling. He threw a few punches at War, mainly nailing him in the side because he was unable to get his arms up any higher and at one point he tried to knee him in the stomach but he was stopped by someone who’d come to ‘escort’ him out. War stood there and panted as the man was dragged away, screaming something about how this was unfair between shouts at the guy who’d pinned him to the bar about how he’d get him back later. 

Gods, his face was really starting to throb.

Warriors was still straddling the other guy and he didn’t get up until a couple of other people decided to help out too. The other hero hesitated but they must have said something because he finally let the man go and got off so the other two people could handle him. After watching them for a moment, he joined War and gestured towards their table, which was miraculously still upright. 

“Wanna sit down? You look rough.” 

“Really?” He winced, heading towards the table with every intention of taking a big sip of wine. “How bad is it…”

“You’re waking up with a black eye tomorrow. It’s already pretty red,” Warriors answered. Once they were seated, Warriors drank more from the bottle. “You think anybody is sober enough to notice the weird cursed eyes?” 

“Absolutely not, no,” War grumbled, upset about his poor face. He poured himself a nice full glass and drank about half of it in one go. “They probably would’ve said something immediately if they had.”

Warriors held out his bottle. “Oh good. How about another toast? To both of us getting our faces fucked in this town,” he said with a laugh. 

War just grabbed the bottle and hit it against Warriors’s, no longer really caring if he was drinking out of the glass or not. He was drinking all the wine either way, it didn’t really matter what he drank it out of. “I think you and I have the shittiest luck of anyone I know.”

“But also strangely we have good luck too. Like, we did find a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere on a mountain of all places,” Warriors said with a shrug. “And we also somehow got a ride here. I think the bad luck gets balanced out so really… we have neutral luck.” 

He frowned at his bottle of wine. “Everything is either really horrible or shockingly and almost impossibly good. Would you think I’m selfish for wishing for a day where everything was just… quiet? Where I didn’t have to do anything or owe anyone anything and I could just kind of exist? I feel selfish for wanting that… I know our role as hero is important and I do my best but it’d be nice to just not be important for a day. And for the gods and monsters to recognize I’m not important either, just for twenty four hours.”

“Maybe each of us owes them a certain amount of time where we are perpetually on duty until one day, we aren’t, and we won’t know that we aren’t on duty until years later when we realize it’s been too quiet lately. It’s not like we get a heads up that we are on duty, everything just falls apart all of a sudden,” Warriors said with a hum, shaking his bottle in place of swirling the wine around in his glass. 

“You think one day it’ll just be over?” War asked quietly. “That we can just reach a point where we can do what we want to do for once…?”

Warriors nodded, held up one finger as he took another swig from his bottle, then continued, “Yeah, it’ll just take us a while for us to realize that we can finally do whatever we want to do. We won’t get a sign from the goddesses or something, I don’t think they’ll work like that, but I don’t think we’ll fight our whole lives, you know? Like, I don’t think any of us has stories of another of us dying young and tragically, at least the version of the other heroes we are travelling since the old man did something fucking weird.” 

“I’ve had nightmares that this is it,” he admitted, “that this is all I’m good for. Fighting and doing what I’m told because I can’t do anything else. I think I’ve reached a point where I don’t know what I can be outside of this, you know? Some days I feel like a puppet and I’m sick of the control, I don’t ever want to feel like I belong to someone whether its one person or the whole army, but other days I don’t feel like anything at all because I don’t know what to do with myself. Is there anything outside of this??”

War ran his hands down his face, letting out a shaky sigh (and also a hiss when his hand hit his injured cheek before reaching to take a drink from the bottle.

“It might help if we start doing our own thing and then we’re doing something we like doing before we realize we’re still doing that thing we like to do and we haven’t been called on some big adventure. I dunno, I just feel like in the absence of exciting stories of each other’s deaths, we’re going to die doing something boring. Or at least you probably die doing something boring since I’m cursed and all,” he mumbled, leaning back in his chair as he took yet another drink. “If we wait for a sign, we’ll end up wasting time, you know?”

“I just don’t want to be trapped…” he murmured. “I don’t want to feel trapped, by anything or anyone.”

He couldn’t remember the last time he truly felt unburdened, even as a kid he carried around grief from having lost his father or he was worrying about his younger sisters or the soldiers walking around his village. There was just a heavy weight in his chest of a bunch of horrible feelings that felt like it would never go away.

Warriors hummed. “I really don’t think it'll be forever, War. I really think you’ll catch a real break in the future. Might be something you have to work on though. I can offer what I think is best but I dunno what your life is really like outside of what you’ve said.” He shrugged and glared down at the opening of his bottle. “Fuck, it’s almost empty.” 

“I’m sorry, I think I’m a mess,” he mumbled, drinking more from his own bottle. He didn’t think he was even that drunk yet and already he was working himself up and starting to let the paranoia that he was a failure and that he was broken get to him. He just didn’t feel like a person after the war, after Cia.

He smacked the heel of his palm hard into his forehead at that thought, he needed to not think about that.

“What’s that about?” Warriors asked with a quirked eyebrow before finishing off his bottle and putting the empty bottle down on the table with more force than necessary. 

“Nothing,” he whispered, trying desperately to think about anything else while he violently cursed at himself in his own head for opening that mental can of worms. He took another nice long drink from his bottle of wine and it was only when he set it down that he realized it was essentially empty. He must’ve been drinking much more of it than he’d thought…

Time would probably be disappointed in him. Zelda certainly would be.

“We’re going to be fucked tomorrow,” Warriors mumbled with a frown. “Wanna head back before we can’t make it back ourselves?”

“Yeah, that’ll be for the best,” he sniffed, rubbing his good eye with the heel of his palm as he took in a deep breath. He swayed a little once he got to his feet but thankfully the table was there to steady him, and he first headed over to the poor bartender to pay him for the drinks and give him a little extra for witnessing his first bar fight before heading towards the door.

Of course it was uncomfortably cold, and he crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled as he headed back towards the inn.

“My legs are heavy,” Warriors mumbled. Suddenly, he turned to War and laughed. “The wine didn’t make you feel warm and toasty?”

“Feel a little warm,” he admitted. And he was tired, but he was always a little tired. “But still cold… I’m from a place that never fucking saw snow… This is too cold.” He turned to Warriors with a pout that made his injured face hurt.

“I don’t even remember the last time I got super cold. I don’t actually know for sure if it’s a vampire perk or not but I haven’t gotten that cold even with all the snow,” he said with another laugh, which he quickly stopped doing when he had to suddenly correct himself. “I remember the desert though. Deserts suck. I hate them.” 

“Deserts are horrible,” War huffed, tripping over his feet a little and trying his best not to completely fall down. “I don’t burn, I mean my scars are a little sensitive, but I get overheated fast.”

He pushed open the front door of the inn, starting to feel the exhaustion really catch up with him and he struggled to keep his eyes all the way open. Getting up the stairs was harder than it should’ve been, but he’d also downed an entire bottle of wine so it was really his fault. At least he didn’t fall down and managed to get to the room okay, throwing himself on the nearest surface because being upright wasn’t really agreeing with him anymore.

Warriors kicked his boots off and quickly joined him, settling down beside him. “The other bed is too far,” he mumbled quietly. 

War just kicked his boots off too and let himself melt into the mattress. “We can just stay here, that’s fine.”

If Warriors said anything else to him he didn’t hear it because the second his eyes closed his ears stopped working too, and then he just passed out and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up to throbbing pain and his back against something hard. He knew he made it to bed last night and he knew he was sharing it with War, so there was no way he fell asleep on the floor. He stayed where he was at first, just to orient himself before trying to see if he injured himself because nothing about their adventure to the castle was allowed to be easy. He groaned and sat up, feeling the back of his head. There was no blood but it definitely ached. 

War’s face popped over the edge of the bed and he frowned, pointing down at him with a finger. “Ow?”

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him but he nodded anyway. “Ow,” he agreed as he felt under his nose. There wasn’t any blood there either, so bumped his head but he didn’t break his nose again and that was good enough for him. “You?” 

The other hero nodded as he disappeared from view with a groan, and Warriors was only able to see War throw his arms up over what he assumed was his face from his angle on the floor. 

Why did he drink an entire bottle of wine? His body still felt kind of heavy and they had to leave today because they couldn’t spend a fourth night in town, no matter how kind the innkeepers were. With a deep breath, he tried to get up to his feet but all Warriors managed to do was climb up the bed so that he could plop face first on the bed. Any other time, he would be more careful with his nose but it didn’t hurt, so he didn’t really care. It should correct itself eventually.  

War didn’t move, he just let out another groan.

“War, we fucked up last night,” he said as he turned his head so that he wasn’t just talking to the bedsheets. “And we gotta leave today.”

“I don’t feel good,” the other hero mumbled. 

“What kind of ‘don’t feel good’? Low sugar kind or the drinking whiskey and a whole bottle of wine in one sitting kind?” Warriors asked. Warriors wasn’t much better since he had a whole bottle too but War did drink more than he did. He had an extra glass on top of the wine. “Maybe both?” 

“I don’t know,” he whined, “I haven’t drinked… Drinked…? Drunk…? Fuck it, I haven’t had that much in a while. I don’t remember.”

Warriors pushed himself off the bed and stumbled his way towards War’s head to get a better look at him. He was pale, the kind of pale that reminded Warriors of the few times he drank from War and he immediately lost all the colour in his face. “Do you still have your apricots?” he asked as he looked around the room. 

“Mhm, I think there’s some left,” War mumbled. “You want some?”

“What? No, you need them,” Warriors said with a roll of his eyes. “You’re the low sugar kind of pale. Now where the fuck is your bag?” He had to bend down and to get it from the floor but once he had it, he placed it on War’s chest.  

“Oh,” the other hero said quietly, bringing both hands down to dig through the pouch where he kept his snacks, revealing to Warriors a very swollen looking black eye from where he’d been hit last night. Warriors winced. 

“Can you see out of that eye?” Warriors asked. “Do you have a potion in your bag?” 

“Hurts,” War grumbled out before he shoved a dried apricot into his mouth. “An’ yeah, I should..?” He dug around his things to try to find out.

“Take the potion next,” he mumbled as he slowly sat down on the bed and leaned his head back onto the wall for support. It hurt, he did hit it falling out of the bed, but it still made him feel better. “Maybe it looks worse because your sugar is low but it looks pretty bad.”

“I’ll take it once ‘m not worried I’ll throw it up,” War groaned, gently turning himself onto his side so he could curl up on the mattress.

Warriors hummed, deciding against saying anything because he didn’t want to be the one to push War over the edge if he was feeling nauseous. Besides, it gave him a chance to try to clear his muddled head. He still couldn’t believe he drank so much but he also couldn’t believe that he acted so differently. When he drank from War’s blood, he could remember laughing and goofing around. When he drank from the bottle, he wasn’t quite as silly. He didn’t plan on getting super drunk often but he was interested in seeing if blood made such a difference. 

When he didn’t feel quite as bad, he hopped off the bed and started cleaning up and taking stock of what he had in his bag. He still had fruit sitting around their room and he packed the apples and oranges but left the plums and a rag since they needed to be eaten soon and he figured he would take care of it on the road. He found the other half heart necklace but Warriors was hesitant to wear it - if he had it around his neck, it was probably going to end up in his mouth. For now, it was safer in his bag. He had to put the small satchel of chain mail rings into his bag but he had nearly everything else. The only thing not in his bag were the extra arrows but he knew where they were at. 

Once everything was secured, he closed his bag. “You feel any better?” Warriors asked. 

“A little,” War said quietly. There was a bit more color in his face now, making his black eye look a little better because it didn’t stand out so much, but he was shaking a little, still curled up on his side with his eyes closed. “Sorry.”

He definitely had some time to eat at least. He grabbed a rag and bit into one of the plums he left out to eat on the road. Warriors finished it before speaking up again. 

“Take your time. I don’t mind waiting for you to get better. We don’t know when we’ll find another town, so we would be idiots if we left when one of us isn’t feeling great.” Warriors could only hope that they would find another inn to rent but he knew it was unlikely, so they had to prepare to make camp and that included making sure War felt relatively okay when they left. Besides, he knew War would do the same if he didn’t feel well. “When you’re feeling less shitty, we still have oranges to help keep your sugar up.” 

“We do?” The other hero sounded excited even though his voice was weak and his energy was low. “Fuck yeah…”

“We also have plums that need to be eaten today because they’ll go bad soon, and I don’t know if you like apples but we have some of those too,” Warriors said with a shrug. “We should leave today but it looks like we have a lot of sunlight left.” 

“I like apples and plums,” he mumbled, carefully trying to push himself up on shaky arms. “What time is it…?”

“Well, not quite noon yet, so maybe around ten or eleven? I’m not as good at keeping time like the old man is,” he answered. He would go check to see where the sun actually was instead of trying to judge by the shadows in their room but that would involve him actually looking at the sun and he didn’t enjoy that even when his tolerance towards it was better. 

“Mmm… Yeah that fuckin’ kid always knows the exact time, not sure how he does it,” War groaned as he twisted himself to fully sit up. He swayed just a little, blinking hard as he tried to steady himself, but he didn’t fall back down. “Farore up above, I don’t think I should ever drink that much again, no thank you. Never. No.” He dug through his snack pouch for some more of his dried fruits and cashews and popped them into his mouth with a sigh.

Warriors sighed. “We should have eaten something there. Or had some water after. We drank a lot and then did absolutely nothing to help ourselves after. In hindsight, we should have split a bottle instead of having our own. At least the others will never find out.” Warriors should have known better, it wasn’t like he was new at drinking and he drank at enough fancy parties to know how to pace himself. 

“Why are we stupid?” he whined, swinging his legs off the edge of the bed. War’s curls were an absolute mess from all the flopping around he’d been doing since he woke up and he looked a little pathetic with his one eye still swollen shut. 

He shook his head. “We were left unsupervised.” 

He was mostly joking but if he had one of the others around or if he was with Impa, he knew he wouldn’t have drunk a whole bottle himself. He knew he shouldn’t need somebody around to keep him from himself and he usually didn’t need somebody to tell not to drink so much, so he wasn’t sure why he kept drinking. 

War grumbled something he couldn’t understand under his breath before grabbing his healing potion and taking a sip. The swelling immediately went down around his eye and the awful dark color faded but it still looked a little irritated, though War didn’t drink any more and instead put the potion away for later.

“Can you see out of it now?” Warriors asked with a frown. 

“Yeah,” he winced as he gently touched the slightly bruised skin. “It’s a little sore but it’ll heal up. I don’t want to waste any more potion when, knowing us, we’ll be needing it soon.”

Warriors rolled his eyes, not at War but at their slightly fucked up situation. “We should save them for you anyway. You’re the one who has the chance to go home with a permanent injury. I will take some if we need to get moving, but the bulk of it should be for you.” 

“Just because you’ll heal doesn’t mean you don’t still feel pain,” War frowned. “If you need a potion it’s fine.”

He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Warriors wasn’t getting back into that conversation again because he knew they would just go around in circles. They both seemed to care about each other more than they cared about themselves. “Are you feeling well enough to eat breakfast or lunch or whatever might be downstairs? We should eat before we leave.” 

“Yeah,” War nodded, “and that should help, too. It’d probably be good for me to eat something before we go.”

“I’ll be back,” Warriors mumbled as he stood up and headed out of their room and downstairs. It didn’t take him long to find one of the innkeepers at the counter. It was the man. 

“Is everything alright? We heard a thud.” 

“I just fell out of bed but I’m fine,” he answered. “This is our last day here but we were wondering if you had anything for us to eat before we leave.” 

“Of course! We’ll be up with something soon!” 

Warriors thanked him and returned to their room, keeping their door ajar. “They’re bringing something up, don’t know what it is but we haven’t had a bad meal here yet,” he said with a shrug. 

“They’ve been very kind to us,” War sighed as he fought with his hair in front of the mirror.

“It’s almost too bad we have to leave. I wouldn’t mind staying longer if we could get away with it,” he said, then watched as the door was pushed open further. 

“It’s not quite lunch yet but we have some leftover pastries from breakfast that we warmed up and we had coffee brewing, so I brought you each a cup with some sugar and cream,” the man said as he put the tray down on their table. “Enjoy!”

Warriors immediately grabbed a cup of coffee and added some sugar, using a little spoon to stir it in. Sometimes, he got teased for drinking coffee that was more sugar than coffee but he liked sweets, what was he supposed to do? 

“Thank you!” War smiled at the man before grabbing the second cup, taking a sip of his very plain coffee.

“Just plain?” Warriors asked with a tilt of his head. “Um, not judging, just curious.” 

“I didn’t ever drink coffee until after I’d been drafted, and everyone said it’d help me feel awake and have more energy so I’d tried it and it didn’t have that effect at all. And it tasted terrible,” the other hero mumbled. “But I realized during the war that it made my mind quieter and I could focus better on battle plans, so I got used to drinking it. We didn’t have sugar or cream during the war, so I'm used to having it without. I eventually adjusted to the taste.”

“I had no idea coffee could do that,” he mumbled. “It makes me feel a little more awake but not enough that I need it every morning like some of the soldiers I fought with. There were some soldiers that couldn’t focus on anything I said until they had some coffee. I just like the way it tastes with some sugar or some chocolate.”

“I have been told I have an incredibly fucked up brain so I just assume I’m always the problem or I’m always the weird one,” War sighed. “But I don’t think I’ve ever put chocolate in coffee before, I didn’t realize that was an option.”

“It’s pretty good if you want to try it when you get home. I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t feel anything from coffee though,” he said as he took a big sip of his own coffee. “Who the fuck said you have a fucked up brain?” 

“A lot of people…” War grumbled. “My old commanding officer mainly, but some of the noblemen too.”

“I can punch them for you,” he said without thinking. He wasn’t sure where that came from, it wasn’t really like him to say that out loud, but he never took kindly to anybody insulting the people he cared about. “If I ever end up in your era, I can punch them.” 

The other hero burst out laughing and smiled. “He’d deserve it. Mask gave him hell during the war for me, for better or worse, and the guy lost his rank because of everything, but I reckon he’s still around.”

Lost rank? That didn’t happen often, at least not often enough. Even when people didn’t deserve their rank, they always managed to hold on to it. “What did he do to lose rank? It doesn’t happen often in my era.” 

“…Um, well there was the torture training and him calling me not very nice things to my face, and behind my back,” War blinked, reaching to grab a pastry, “…and then what I have now realized was abuse…? He also wanted to hand me over to Cia and that was what finally got him kicked, haha.”

Warriors bit his lips in an effort to keep his jaw shut but then he realized he had a coffee to drink, so he sipped at that instead until he could process his thoughts. He couldn’t believe what he just heard. He heard similar sentiments among the troops but most of his superiors either didn’t care about him or at least cared enough about their jobs to help him. The only exceptions were the turncoats but they didn’t abuse him before attacking him. 

“He only lost rank after that?” Warriors asked quietly. “How is ‘still around’?” 

“I’ve seen him around Castletown in the taverns in the lower city,” he mumbled. “He’s not actually allowed in the city at all, technically. He faces severe punishment if he’s caught, but I’ve seen him at a bar once a few years ago. I didn’t report him because I was drunk off my ass and thought I hallucinated him, but later after I really thought about it I’m sure of what I saw.”

“That’s so fucked up,” Warriors mumbled. If he had to guess, War’s former superior probably didn’t think he did anything wrong. He probably thought what happened to him was unfair and wasn’t some sort of consequence for his actions. Warriors was familiar enough with people like that - people who thought things happened to them, not that they did something to deserve it. 

He finished his coffee and grabbed a pastry, which looked to be some sort of flakey bun that was surprisingly sweet for something that didn’t have any filling. 

“The worst I had were the turncoats. A couple of the leaders were my supervisors but the rest were my equals. They didn’t abuse me or anything like they did to you, they just suddenly attacked. I’m not sure what I did to anger them.” 

“I had some of those too,” War sighed. “First time they turned on us it was so overwhelming we almost lost the battle, I almost died that day. Rodgers, my old commanding officer, made excuses for some of them and helped a few escape punishment. It’s hard to tell who’s fucking side he was really on. He hated my ass and wanted me gone but he was fiercely loyal to the crown apart from everything he did. The other turncoats thought Zel was unfit to lead us and that her father had been doing a better job.”

Warriors frowned at him. “I think many of mine were just mad about the war and took it out on me instead. I don’t think they wanted to hand me over to Cia though. I think they want an eye for an eye, like my death would somehow make up for everything they lost. It doesn’t make sense to me but grief does things to people.” 

“I understand why everyone was so angry, with all the lives that were lost, but it took me years to start to think that the way I was treated was unfair,” War whispered. “A lot of people took advantage of me, of my inexperience with the army and just… I guess how young I was too. I didn’t realize how things were supposed to work. I didn’t realize that it’s not common for soldiers to go through torture training, Sidney was genuinely horrified when I casually brought that one up, or for captains to have to make the decisions I had to make. There was really and truly a point where I believed that turning myself in would be the best option and for most of the war I carried this guilt that if I wasn’t so selfish, I could stop everything. I felt guilty when the assassination attempts failed, and even now that I’ve realized how fucked it is that I was feeling bad for just being alive. I don’t think I’ll ever not feel guilty for having to kill turncoats to save my own life or Mask’s. I’ve heard some of my friends say how they feel like awful people for having to kill beasts, but most days I feel irredeemable for having taken hylian lives. The war really was a fucked up thing.”

“I don’t… feel that bad about killing people,” Warriors said quietly, chewing on his pastry before continuing, “I think I told you that I once killed somebody by tearing their throat out. I only felt bad about the manner of death. I’m still upset that I killed them with my powers and I have this little blank in my memory. I’m not that upset that I killed them, I’m just upset that I didn’t use my sword and I killed them like a monster would. I’m scared that I’ll kill somebody else and not remember it. I was going to kill them for trying to poison my brothers though.” 

“I just feel like those turncoats wouldn’t be dead, that no one would have died in that war if it weren’t for my existence,” War mumbled. “I would never have been a soldier and this wouldn’t be weighing on me so heavily if Cia or the gods or whoever just hadn’t picked some poor person to suffer like this. And it’s selfish of me to even be sitting here like ‘why me’ because if not me, then it’s you. It’s someone.”

“And there’s probably ‘someone’ who didn’t make out the other side like we did. Maybe they got killed by their turncoats, maybe Cia did get them after all, or maybe some freak accident resulted in them just dying in a field somewhere. For better or for worse, we made it,” Warriors said with a shrug, as he finished his pastry and grabbed another. Of course they would find something morbid to talk about while eating breakfast and drinking coffee. 

War was silent for a long moment, just holding on to his still uneaten pastry and staring at whatever spot on the floor he’d been finding so interesting for the past several minutes, eyes wide in what was probably shock. 

“Like, for every hero that did survive, there’s probably one that didn’t, or some sort of alternate reality where one we do know died,” Warriors continued. “The old man did some sort of fuckery that made Wind’s timeline, so maybe there’s more examples we just don’t know about.” 

“It’s weird to think about us or any of the others fully failing…” War said quietly, taking a small bite from the corner of his pastry. “I mean there were battles lost in the war, and moments where I got my ass handed to me but you and I both succeeded in the end. Even with everything we went through, we’re still here. It’s strange to think there could be a timeline where we’ve died because things went differently. Or Time, or Sky, or Twilight, or any of the others.”

“We can’t imagine it because they’re actually here with us and well, we’re here, wherever or whenever the fuck ‘here’ is,” he said with a shrug. “I guess for me, I can imagine all the close calls before the curse and I can see somebody failing there. Sometimes, it’s just dumb luck that we survived.” 

“Yeah…” War took another bite of his pastry. 

They finished breakfast in silence. War took their dishes down while Warriors tripled checked that he cleaned up all of his things and they were packed in the most optimal way. He didn’t want to pack War’s things because he wasn’t sure how he liked it and even after everything together, he wasn’t comfortable going through his things. 

When War returned, Warriors was ready to go. “I’ll wait for you outside. I don’t want to crowd you.” 

“Alright,” the other hero said quietly, “I’ll be down shortly.”

Warriors bid the innkeepers goodbye, which was strangely emotional for him. He didn’t expect to get so attached to them so he felt truly sad to leave them. He headed outside and as he ate a plum in the shadow of the inn, he took stock of all the shops he could see from his spot at the side of the road trying to think if they needed to stop at any of them before they left town. 

He was taken out of his thoughts when he thought he saw blue fabric entering the inn from the corner of his eye. It looked the same scarf he and War had, but War was supposed to be leaving the inn, not going back into it. Maybe he did go back in just to say goodbye. Maybe he forgot something, though that didn’t seem like War. He was sure War was thorough about packing up like he was - it was a military thing.

Then he actually saw War, coming from the same direction from the inn but not from the inn. Odd. Maybe it was just the light then. Maybe he just fucking imagined it.

“Those innkeepers might be the sweetest people alive,” the other hero sighed as he came to a stop beside him.

Warriors blinked at him. “Yeah, I’m kind of sad to leave them,” he said quietly. “We good to go?”

War nodded, fixing how his scarf laid around his neck. Warriors looked back at the inn one last time, that mysterious blue scarf still in mind, then walked alongside War as they finally left the inn and the village behind. 

Maybe he should’ve been paying more attention to everything around them, but War had accidentally gotten quite distracted by the sound of the dirt and rocks crunching under his boots as he and Warriors headed further and further from town. It wasn’t like up on the mountain where it’d been hard to see anything because everything was just white with snow. On one side of the road they were traveling down, there was a forest they seemed to be heading for and on the other side was just an endless sea of grass, but there still wasn’t much of anything. There weren’t many little animals, there weren’t even too many bugs because the region they were in was still a little chilly. Maybe they’d ended up in this era during the winter months somehow.

That might not be the most likely, considering how much warmer it was down here than on the mountains, but it could also just be a warm winter. War didn’t know.

He was a little upset he hadn’t been able to wrestle his hair into something presentable looking. His curls were an absolute mess and had been for days, and he really wished he’d been able to get some kind of product in it to help him out but he hadn’t gotten the chance to at the bath house and he hadn’t been thinking to look if any of the small stores in the town sold any hair products. Back during the war when his hair decided to be an asshole like this all he did was shove his hat over his head and everything was fine, but he didn’t have that as an option right now. He knew if Time or one of the others were here they’d tell him he looked fine, but his hair was too out of control for his liking and he just wasn’t happy with it.

He really missed his friends. It was nice getting a chance to work with someone new and he was enjoying Warriors’s company and getting to know the guy, but he wondered how his friends were doing and if they were worried about where he’d gone. When he traveled with so many people, no one questioned when he fell silent, but with Warriors he wondered how his silence was interpreted by the other hero. He was starting to understand him a little better after how much time they’d spent together, but Warriors was still a little hard for him to read and he was still worried about annoying him somehow. 

Maybe he should ask him about his friends? So Warriors didn’t think there was something wrong with him for being so quiet and also because War was genuinely curious to know how different their friends could be given how different they were.

“How long have you been traveling with your group?” he asked, glancing over at the other hero.

“I… don’t even know,” he said quietly. “It’s all so blended together that I can’t even really tell anymore. I think it’s been less than a year but that’s not helpful at all, sorry. Uh… what about you?” 

“It’s hard to keep track of time when we’re bouncing all over the place but it’s been around eleven months,” War answered, looking back down at the rocks in the path. “We’ve celebrated everyone’s birthday at least once by now, except for mine. Shit really always falls apart around my gods damned birthday.” He let out a genuine laugh. Or maybe it was that shit really liked to fall apart at the very end of the calendar year for no reason and so he just got included in all that mess. “I almost had a full blown breakdown last year when that portal showed up in my room, and I’d been absolutely shocked to find a bunch of other dudes named Link on the other side.”

“Even after the war where you met two other Links?” he asked. “I wasn’t the most shocked but I was still trying to hide my vampirism, so I was distracted by other things, I suppose.” 

“I mean it was still alarming to walk out of my bedroom and into a portal to find just a handful of dudes all like ‘Hi we’re Link!’ and I was so tired of all the ‘chosen by fate’ hero business I almost told them that wasn’t my name so I could just go home,” he grumbled. He was well aware that he was probably specifically chosen for all the bullshit by the gods and that his name had absolutely nothing to do with it, but he did sometimes wonder if he hadn’t taken his father’s name when he got drafted if he would’ve been left alone. “How long did you hide your vampirism from them, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Only for a couple of months. Looking back on it, I’m shocked that I managed to keep it hidden for that long and I only got away with it because only Time knew what a vampire was,” he said with a shrug. “I once came back to camp covered in blood because I hunted but I was expecting Time to be on watch so I wasn’t careful. Thankfully, Legend was too tired to care about it. I think Time helped a little bit because if he’s not concerned, then the others weren’t that concerned either. Actually, that’s still true...” 

“Yeah, Time’s accidentally helped me get away with being weird and too quiet because if he doesn’t question something, no one else does. It’s a little odd how that works out,” he sighed. “I’m glad you have your friends now to help you with the vampire stuff.”

Warriors laughed awkwardly. “I’m still trying to get used to that. They’re really good about picking things up and knowing when I need something without me having to say it. Time usually knows exactly what I need because he was around when I got cursed. I should have been honest with them from the start, it would have been a lot easier. They found out in a similar way you found out actually.” 

“Oh really?” he asked.

“We were fighting nine infected darknuts. Sky went down, and Legend was trying to save him but that put him in danger too, so I had to use my powers to save them.” He paused, like he was debating on whether or not he was going to continue. He must have decided because he took a deep breath and said, “Now, using my powers was the smart thing… the not so smart thing was thinking I could use the shadow’s power. Black blood tastes vile, by the way. Luckily, Time knew how to restrain me so nobody other than Sky got hurt in that battle, but it was definitely the dumbest way I’ve lost control.” 

“So the black blood made you lose control?” War decided to push a little, unsure if that was the best idea but he did want to know. 

He nodded. “Yeah, and so did the blood moon. External sources of dark magic overwhelm me, I guess. I had more control with the black moon but it was definitely a struggle. Luckily, with both black blood and the blood moon, direct contact with the master sword seems to fix it. Black blood is easy to avoid and I know what the blood moon feels like before it comes now,” he answered. At least he didn't seem bothered or upset. 

“Oh I didn’t even think about what a blood moon could do,” War blinked. “Mask doesn’t like them, they freak him out, but I didn’t even consider the effects it might have on a vampire.”

“I didn’t know what was going on at first. I knew something was weird because all of a sudden, my fangs came out and I couldn’t retract them. I stepped away, so I don’t know how my Mask felt about it but he never said anything about it. He might have been more worried about me and Hyrule because he followed me and I was struggling to stay in control. It might have gone pretty bad if Wild and Sky didn’t come find us. Fucking blood moon made me hungry though,” Warriors added with a hiss. 

“Seems like they were all pretty accepting about the vampirism when they found out, even though you lost control?” 

“I’m always more upset about losing control than they are,” he mumbled. “Even if I attack them, they’re never upset with me. I couldn’t be upset with them if they weren’t themselves and attacked me but I dunno, I guess I’m always waiting for them to change their mind or something. It seems too good to be true that none of them have a problem with it.” 

“It’s not intentional,” War frowned, “if they’re anything like my friends then it makes sense to me why they wouldn’t have a problem with it. They care about you and they know you don’t mean it.”

After a moment of hesitation, he simply nodded. “I can’t argue against that. They’re some of the most stubborn people I know, and that includes being stubborn about how much they care. Sometimes, we bicker about it.”

“Bicker?” he asked before he could stop himself, letting his curiosity take over. Warriors had seemed fine with the questions today so maybe he really didn't mind.

“About how to best deal with me. I think they need to be more careful because I can hurt one of them pretty badly but they seem pretty confident that they know what they’re doing and have everything handled without needing to hurt me in return. I don’t remember anything so maybe they’ve been fine. I just worry, you know? What if they’re downplaying something I did?” 

“I mean I don’t know your friends, but I don’t think mine would ever do something like that. I doubt anyone who cares about you would do something like that,” War mumbled, digging through the pouch on his belt for some of his cashews. He was almost out, which was devastating. He’d need to buy more. “I know we’re two completely different people, but do you think our friends are more similar…? Or do you think it’s like with us and they’re all different?”

Warriors blinked at him like the question caught him off guard. It took him a moment to answer. “From what you’ve said, I think they’re different like we are. They probably have similar experiences like we do if they’re all the same heroes, but I don’t think they're the same people. Your group sounded stranger than mine, that’s for sure.”

“Really?” He raised an eyebrow. Sure his brothers were certainly a bit weird but it was hard to imagine them… normal.

“I think you said you weren’t sure if your Wild was entirely alive. That automatically makes him stranger than my Wild,” Warriors mumbled.

“Oh yeah,” he let out a small laugh. “Wild’s an interesting one. Let me tell you, it was a real shock to watch him get knocked unconscious the first time mid battle, and I rushed to his side as soon as I could and found no pulse. And while I still had my fingers to his pulse point he sat right up and just looked at me before downing maybe half a potion and running off like everything was fine. Turns out his heart doesn’t always beat and he doesn’t always breathe either and both of these things are fine, apparently.”

“Even my heart beats and you’ve seen the sort of things I can heal from. I just feel like if I was in a room full of your brothers, I wouldn’t be the weirdest one there and I drink blood,” Warriors said with a sigh. 

“I think all my brothers have at least one thing going on, like Mask’s hip frequently just pops out of place and we have to stop and help him out with that and that’s not even the strange thing, that’s actually easily explainable. What is weird though is that sometimes he just gives off this… this energy, this very strong magical presence that feels far older and far more powerful than he is and it’s almost terrifying,” War sighed. It only wasn’t scary to him because Time was still his little brother and he could never be afraid of him, but it was still unnerving that sometimes he felt like he’d found himself in the presence of a god. “Wild is… Wild. Twilight needs to do his specific things in his routine so he can actually sit down and rest, plus he gets major energy boosts where he needs to run around. Hyrule has some strange spells he knows and is a little too good at magic for some random Hylian but I’m not going to be the one to question him about that. And I’ll be honest I really don’t know what’s going on with Four.”

“Has Mask used the, well… mask, during the War?” Warriors asked, his tone suddenly much more serious than it was before. 

“He did, that’s part of why his hips and shoulders pop out so much,” he grumbled. “He overused the masks when he was younger while he was growing and now his bones don’t really like to stay in place because they’re so used to moving into different places, at least that’s how he explained it to me.”

“But did he use the one that kind of looks like him? He said that one had a deity in it.” 

“Yeah, I know the Deity, and he has his markings on his face now,” War mumbled. “Well, at least on one side of his face. He told me he was wearing the mask and got in a bad fight and was struck across the face, that’s how he lost his eye too. It’s gone, he has a glass prosthetic and a large portion of that half of his face was paralyzed by the injury, and he told me the mask was shattered and the Fierce Deity is gone.” 

War wasn’t sure he believed that, especially with the strange magical power he picked up from his brother, but he couldn’t exactly push when he was keeping secrets of his own. He could pretend to believe Time’s story since his brother was doing the same for him.

He couldn’t see Warriors’ expression since he was wearing his mask but his silence felt heavy. “The mask… broke,” he said simply, like he was trying to understand what War said.

“Mhm, he said it was shattered,” he repeated. 

“Do you think it’s that simple?” he asked quietly. “He never said what happened to the Deity once the thing containing it broke?” 

“No, he didn’t,” War whispered. “And I can’t help but think that the god would’ve chosen him as its new vessel, with the mask gone, but I’m not going to push and demand answers when there are things he asks me about that I can’t bring myself to tell him.”

Warriors considered his words with a tilt of his head. “That makes sense. I wonder why it needs a vessel though. I thought it was just sealed away. Ganondorf didn’t need a vessel once all the seals on him broke, so I can’t help but to wonder what the difference is.” 

“I don’t know,” he sighed, “it’s just the only theory I have. If Mask was the deity when the mask shattered maybe it just stayed with him? There are times his energy feels too ancient and strong for a normal hylian, and sure Sky also feels like that and he’s never encountered the Deity before, but I can’t think of how else this might’ve happened.” Thinking about it made his head hurt sometimes.

“I think my Time still has the mask but he also has the markings and he’s also blind on that side. He hasn’t used it or said anything about it but I know he wouldn’t just keep it at home. I have to assume that no news just means things haven’t changed but maybe that logic is flawed,” Warriors mumbled. “I think that means there might be more than one deity.” 

War frowned. “Do you think there are really more than one? Or maybe it’s the same deity facing a different fate across timelines? Do you think our gods are the same? Even though we’re different?”

“Perhaps, but my crazy idea is that we’re looking at an infinite amount of timelines where small choices that don’t seem important can make another timeline where there might be more heroes that we share a title with,” he said, waving his hands around as he did so. “I’m not even positive if we both know the same Lana and Cia, or if there are multiple of them too. Like, is there Cia and Lana for every Hero of Warriors or is there just one of each and Cia is forced to constantly hunt down the Hero of Warriors like she’s never met one of us? Both of those suck!”

The idea of multiple Cias was almost enough to make him physically ill, and he started pulling the fabric away from his neck with a shaking hand so he didn’t end up coughing and choking like he was being strangled. If there really was more than one Cia, could all of them see through the timelines and spy on the same Link? What was stopping a Cia from another timeline from finding and coming after him? If there was more than one of her, who's to say there couldn’t end up being another war? What was even keeping her in her own timeline?

“Do you think there’s a version of me in your era since we’re not the same person?” Warriors asked suddenly like he didn’t really think what he was saying. “Like, if you go home, will there be a non-vampire version of me there? Maybe he looks a little older because he might actually age and I’m stuck looking like I’m twenty for the rest of my life.” 

War took in a deep breath to calm himself before thinking. “Huh… I’ve seen a lot of soldiers over the past seven years and I don’t have the best memory of the ones I didn’t regularly fight beside, so I’m not sure if I remember ever having seen your face… I wonder if we could find each other?”

“We might not be able to look until we can't see each other anymore though,” Warriors grumbled, looking away with his shoulders drooping. 

Oh… Right. Warriors couldn’t come with him when he got his brothers back, this entire time they’d been actively working towards a way to put themselves back with their own friends and then they’d never see each other again. 

They hadn’t even really spent that much time together and War had already gotten a bit attached to his new friend.

“I’d like to think any version of me that’s out there would be incredibly chill,” he said quietly, really hoping that what he was about to say wasn’t weird or didn’t make Warriors upset. “I came from a small village and without the draft I’m not sure if I would’ve stayed and helped my Ma with our shop or if I still would’ve ended up in the army, but if he’s still me just without the hero shit, I’d like to think he’d be friendly.”

Warriors kept his eyes off of him. “I don’t even know what any other version of me would be like. Maybe he would always just be a soldier.” 

“My era did have the draft,” War mumbled, “so whatever version of you that’s in my era might’ve been drafted. Was there anything you would’ve wanted to be? Had you not joined the army?”

He stopped walking. “I can’t even think about what I want to do when I can’t be in the military anymore, let alone what I would have done if I never joined in the first place,” he grumbled. “Sorry… that’s not your fault.” 

War froze just a step ahead of him, turning to look at him as he spoke and feeling his ears flick down in shock. He hadn’t meant to ask a sensitive question. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Warriors mumbled, walking ahead of him. “It’s not your fault my childhood sucked and was uninspiring.”

No, it wasn’t, but that didn’t mean War didn’t feel like an ass for asking something that brought up feelings of frustration, and he’d heard enough about Warriors’s aunt to realize he probably shouldn’t have asked something like that. He should’ve expected that answer.

He didn’t say anything as he followed after Warriors, he just adjusted his shirt collar to keep it further away from his neck and headed back down the little path towards the forest, staring back down at the rocks he’d found so interesting earlier.

They walked on in silence for a very long time, War wasn’t sure what to say and Warriors didn’t speak to him either, and without either of them calling for a break they just kept moving until the sun started to set and it became a good idea to set up camp before it was too dark. They’d found a nice little spot just into the forest, where the trees weren’t too thick yet but it felt somewhat protected. War wasn’t the biggest fan of not being able to see a wide area around him, but the trees blocking his view meant they were also blocking any monsters’ view of him. 

Warriors seemed very interested in the trees though. He stood at the foot of one of them and was looking up into it. “They look very sturdy,” he said out loud. “It’s been a while since I could hang from a tree.” 

War raised an eyebrow and let out a curious hum as he fussed with his things, setting up a little spot for himself against the trunk of a different tree.

“Vampires don’t get motion sick, so sometimes I uh… just spend an entire watch hanging upside down in a tree. I honestly don’t know why I do it, other than it being surprisingly comfortable… I guess,” he said with a nervous laugh. 

“You can hang upside down for that long?” He blinked. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t give me a headache or hurt the back of my knees or anything,” he added, turning his head towards War. “And I can use my powers to just hop into the tree. I don’t really need to climb it.”  

“How high can you jump?” War asked carefully, a little nervous to be asking questions again.

Warriors shrugged, bent his knees, and jumped, disappearing into the canopy. Leaves rustled, probably as Warriors adjusted himself in the tree. “About this high?” he called out. 

War couldn’t even see him. He stood up and spun around staring up at the trees, trying to spot his friend. “Holy shit!”

“Can you see me or do I have to stick my arm out?” Warriors asked over the rustling of more leaves. “I’m moving a branch.”  

He could make out the branch once it started shaking, but it was so high up he never would’ve guessed Warriors got all the way up there. “I see you!”

“Great, I’m coming down now. I don’t know where you are but you might want to move,” Warriors warned. War stepped back so he wasn’t near the tree. It rustled a couple of times and he could see some of the branches move, then suddenly, Warriors hopped out of the tree and landed on both of his feet. He rose to his feet like nothing happened. 

“That’s really fucking cool that you can do that,” War blinked.

“You think so?” he asked, looking at War with his yellow and red eyes. “I had to train with one of the full vampires after my brothers left and it doesn’t seem so impressive after seeing what he can do. He looks like he’s sixteen and he’s grumpier than Legend, but he regularly kicks my ass. He’s one of the ones that only tolerates me.” 

“Yeah,” he nodded. “It’s cool. Do you want to take watch first again? I know it’s a bit early but I figured we should try to get as much sleep as we can since we have to keep watch tonight.”

“Yeah, I can take first watch. I’m not that tired right now,” he said quietly, almost gently. With a small smile, he added, “Have a good rest, War. I’ll wake you up later.”  

“Alright,” he mumbled, moving to get himself comfortable for the night. “Thanks.”

Chapter Text

Warriors hated mornings, not entirely because he was a vampire, but it definitely played a big role. It used to be a lot easier to wake up since he just got used to waking up early when he was living in the barracks. After becoming a vampire though, opening his eyes in the morning always felt like a fight, even if he felt awake enough by the time he started his morning routine. 

Breakfast was the fruit Warriors still in his bag. He finished the last of the plums while War had an orange and by the time they were back on the road again, it was only a few hours after sunrise. Compared to the day before, they were pretty early. 

“You think we’ll find a town today?” Warriors asked. He felt bad that he snapped at War the day before but he still wanted to talk and smooth out the bump in their friendship, or at least talk enough to put it behind them. 

“It would be nice if we did,” War sighed. “I think with how close the last two were, maybe we will find one today or tomorrow.”

“While we were on the mountain, I thought we would spend more time sleeping outside than we have,” Warriors admitted. “Just think of how long it would have taken to get off the mountain if I didn’t use my powers. We’d be so behind.” 

“It would’ve taken us forever to get down safely, with all the snow and how steep it was,” the other hero nodded. “And I know you’re probably sick of me saying how much I don’t like the cold and snow, but I genuinely don’t think I would’ve been able to stay on that mountain much longer without suffering some real consequences, so… Thanks.”

“I was worried about how you would handle the cold too,” Warriors said quietly. He joked about it in his head but behind it, there was genuine concern. “It helped that you handled the whole vampire thing pretty well too. I don’t think I would have ever offered to use my powers to get off unless you were actively dying if you didn’t take it so well.” 

War looked a little surprised by that, like the idea that he wouldn’t have been accepting had never crossed his mind at all. 

“I don’t always know how people will take it. I think I’ll always be nervous, even though nobody has actually stopped being friends with me because of it. I need blood to live, it sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it? Like, if you didn’t know what a vampire was, wouldn’t it sound weird?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. 

“I had no idea really what a vampire was before I met you, and I mean yeah, it was unusual hearing that you needed blood to heal but I didn’t find it that weird,” War blinked at him. 

Warriors laughed. “Perhaps I shouldn’t ask another hero. If we described the war to civilians from another era, they would just think we have an active imagination even though it was our reality.” 

“Oh for sure,” War let out a small laugh, “I think we’ve seen so much crazy shit that there’s no such thing as weird anymore.”

“If there is a weird, it’s really fucking weird then. Or maybe there’s something we find weird that civilians would find completely normal because we don’t know what normal is anymore.” Was he rambling too much now? He was rambling before War asked a question he wasn’t prepared to answer. He swallowed. War didn’t mean anything by it. It was a perfectly normal question so he wasn’t sure why he even got upset with it. 

Warriors just had to keep a cool mind. That’s all. Just stay relaxed and then he wouldn’t snap at War again. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve all completely forgotten what normal is supposed to be,” the other hero snorted.

“That’s probably true for everybody who survived that war too. What if there is another war? I don’t even know what a normal war looks like. I guess that’s both a good thing and a bad thing, but still. I’m used to a military that had backup and experience from other heroes. Basic training could have never prepared us for a war with time travel involved.” 

“We were on our own for a while before anyone from a different era showed up and it really was overwhelming,” War said quietly. “Most of the army was decently well trained since we’d been expecting a war with a neighboring kingdom for a long time but a lot of people who’d been recently drafted just didn’t have enough training and we had to quickly solve political issues while dealing with all the monster attacks and Zelda ‘disappearing’. I really hope there’s not another war any time soon, that was all just… A lot.”

“Somehow, I forgot that Zelda ‘disappeared’. It feels so long ago,” he said with a frown. When he thought back on the war, Zelda’s little disappearing act barely registered. He knew it was something that happened but there were other moments that simply stuck out to him even more. “I remember the war for getting betrayed, for getting cursed, and for accidentally getting shot by Zelda. I also remember it for all the time-displaced heroes I met.”

“I choose to remember it for giving me my brother,” War mumbled. “And also, I’ll never forget the sheer amount of lives it took, but apart from honoring those who didn’t make it home and doing my best to help rebuild what parts of the kingdom were destroyed, I force myself not to think too much about it. Or, rather, the worst parts of it. I did enough of that right when the war first ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened and it almost consumed me completely.”

“It’s been seven years since the war ended for you, right?” Warriors asked. 

War nodded, letting out a soft hum. 

“You’ve lived more life after the war than I have.” He kept his tone neutral. It was neither a good thing or a bad thing, just a fact. There was more time for wounds to scar and more little distractions to keep his mind occupied, though it was hard to say what sort of distractions War got when he still lived in the castle and still had to act as a hero. “What have you been doing in the last seven years?” 

“A lot of different things,” the other hero told him. “The war brought a lot of physical destruction to towns and villages across the kingdom, not to mention the number of lives it took and the economic effects. A lot of people lost their homes and a lot of children lost their parents, so I spent quite a lot of time ensuring those people were taken care of. I was there in the villages making sure progress was actually being made to rebuild, I made sure nothing was blocking the trade routes anymore, and I did my best to ensure those children weren’t all just shoved somewhere and ignored. I tried to find any relatives for them, or just some familiar faces who’d be willing to take them in and when I couldn’t do that I found them a place to stay with someone I trust will take care of them. The court wasn’t particularly fond of that, but they’re all a bunch of greedy bastards anyway and I can do what I want with my money.” War let out a sigh before continuing. “Other than that I have my duties as a captain in the queen’s army and also her unofficial but at this point sort of official advisor, and I spend a good majority of my time wishing I could argue with the court that no we don’t need a king and it certainly shouldn’t be me but unfortunately I’m there to be seen and not heard in those meetings so I’m not really supposed to talk.”

“They want you to be king?” He didn’t think War would be a bad king or anything since he did seem to genuinely care about people but he already knew that War wasn’t interested in being with his Zelda like that and he knew War wanted a break. Also, it didn’t seem like the nobility liked him that much, if what War said while they were eating breakfast at the inn was of any indication. Were these different nobles or did the same guys who hate him also want him to be king? 

“They do, which is hilarious because these are the same assholes hiring people to come and kill me,” War rolled his eyes. “I’m well aware it’s not me they actually want, they want the other kingdoms to hear that Hyrule’s king is a goddess chosen hero. They don’t care about anything else, they’re trying to make the kingdom look stronger and apparently they’re willing to put up with their hatred to do it.”

“I’ve always wondered how much other countries even care about the heroes here. Vampires abroad care about the princesses because they can smite vampires if they really feel like it, and they also care about evil coming back because they will live long enough to see more than one hero. I don’t think they care about the heroes themselves,” he said with a shrug. It wasn’t exactly true - the vampires in Hyrule cared about him, but they didn’t care much about him being a hero other than knowing that they couldn’t treat him like they might treat other baby vampires. His title brought implications but not the kind of implications that War had to worry about in his era. 

“The other kingdoms in my era only seem to care if it ends up impacting them. I think they respect the hero’s strength or whatever but they wouldn’t really care if Hyrule’s king was a ‘hero’ or not. I think the court is mostly fucking full of themselves and want to use the image of a hero as long as they can in whatever ways they can make it benefit them,” War grumbled. “They treat ‘the hero’ and myself very differently.”

Warriors frowned, though it wasn’t like War could see it behind his mask. He was about to ask about his Zelda when he happened to glance at the forest they were walking beside. He stopped in his tracks. Within the forest, he could see what looked to be spider webs… a lot of spider webs. It was mostly strung along the trees, from branch to branch and tree to tree, but he could see some webs on the bushes too. 

“What. The. Fuck.” 

“Oh no… No no no no no…” War whispered, eyes widening as he took in just how much the webs covered. 

“I take it you don’t like spiders,” Warriors mumbled. He couldn’t say he was a fan either but if there was a big enough spider to do that or enough of them to do that, then they needed to check it out. “If our hero duties include bar fights, they include freaky spiders too.” 

“I don’t like them at all, I don’t care how big they are,” the other man grumbled as he very reluctantly took a step forward towards the webs. “I’m sure the tiny ones are harmless or whatever and if they leave me alone I let them be, but they freak me the fuck out.”

Warriors stepped ahead of War and he was the first to break the treeline and enter the forest. It was eerie, to say the least. Forests were usually darker since the canopy blocked out some of the sun but the webs, combined with the canopies, made it much darker than usual. It was also far too quiet. Warriors could see the webs but he couldn’t see any of the spiders that made them, nor could he hear them. 

Then he saw something move from the canopy, scurrying away to another tree. It was the shape of a spider but it was far too large. He could kind of remember fighting a big spider but he couldn’t quite place where he fought one, and he definitely didn’t know if it had a name other than ‘spider’. Warriors could only stand there and watch it. 

War whipped around at the sound of the leaves rustling above them, trying to find where the noise had come from. 

“That’s… one big fucking spider,” Warriors whispered as he spotted a second also within a tree, starring at him with far too many eyes. “They’re in the trees.” 

The other hero turned towards him slowly before looking up at where he was. Warriors could tell when he spotted them because War let out a muffled shriek after he’d clamped his hand over his own mouth. 

Warriors jumped back as more of the giant spiders emerged from the brush, raising a couple of their giant legs threateningly. There was still movement above them too, with spiders running along the branches and the webs between them. Warriors couldn’t count them all but there had to be at least ten giant fucking spiders. 

He decided to take the mask off his face and shove it into his bag. He didn’t really need it in a forest covered in webs, so he didn’t want to risk damaging it in a fight if he didn’t have to. With it safe in his bag, he turned to War. “Let’s split up. I’ll go to the trees, and you fight the ones on the ground.”

Warriors didn’t wait for an answer. He summoned his fangs, withdrew his sword and used his powers to jump into the trees.

Everything was horrible, everything was so awful, and if Warriors wasn’t there with him and if his life wasn’t legitimately in danger, he probably would’ve just sat down and cried. He’d been severely understating his dislike for spiders because he didn’t really want Warriors to realize how absolutely irrational it was. Tiny little spider, huge fucking skulltula, it didn’t matter. His entire life he’d been terrified of the damn things, and he really had no reason to be because until he’d started traveling with his friends, he’d never even been attacked by one. 

This was genuinely the most horrible scenario imaginable: There were gigantic spiders and they wanted to fucking kill him.

When the first one descended from the trees, something took over in his brain and he just ran at it, screaming as he swung his sword at the damn thing. And then he just kept swinging. He wasn’t sure he’d ever moved that fast before in his life and he was so freaked out he didn’t even feel himself tiring. Each swing would knock the spider back a little bit and when it came back at him, he was already frantically swinging to knock it back again and again until eventually it fell backwards and War wasted no time in driving his sword straight through the middle of it.

He felt absolutely no relief or satisfaction because he knew there were more and he didn’t think he’d be able to calm his racing heart until they were all dead. 

“Watch out!” Warriors shouted from above as one of the skulltulas came crashing down from above though thankfully, it was already dead. 

Two live ones dropped after it and War rushed at them before they could get him first. It was overwhelming having to focus on two skulltulas while also trying to keep an eye out to make sure one didn’t come from behind him. He was barely able to hit one back before the other one came at him, and he couldn’t call Warriors for help because he didn’t want to distract him from all the spiders still up in the trees.

By sheer luck he managed to flip one over and drive his sword through it, but he had to quickly leap out of the way when a web shot at him.

“What the hell??” he shouted, running to duck behind a tree when another web came flying his way.

Why… Why did it have to be spiders… Why did it have to be him?? Twilight actually liked these fucks, well… Maybe not the skulltulas but he wasn’t scared to death of them, he’d pick up tiny spiders with his bare hands and War didn’t know how he could do it.

He heard something drop behind him and he didn’t even think before he swung. The fact that it very well could’ve been Warriors didn’t even cross his mind until his sword bounced off another spider. The other hero probably knew better than to sneak up behind someone in the middle of a fight but War still felt a little bad as he beat the spider to death with his blade, and once that fucker had been stabbed through he decided to just run at the other one and hit it too. The sooner he got this bullshit over with, the sooner he could go sit down somewhere and just breathe. 

The skulltula must’ve been a bit confused, if it could even feel confused, as to why some little hylian had started sprinting at it full speed with a sword when said hylian had been cowering behind a tree just seconds ago because it didn’t even attempt to shoot a web at him. It didn’t do much of anything but stand there as War flipped it over and killed it.

“Incoming!” Warriors shouted once again as another dead skulltula dropped from the canopy. 

War didn’t realize the other hero was practically above him and his heart rate went up so quickly he could’ve passed out when the thing dropped right in front of his face, so close to him that he felt his hair move. He probably would’ve cried if he hadn’t been so completely shocked, but also he really didn’t have time for that because the skulltulas were really starting to get annoyed about their dead friends and two more dropped down to torment him.

With no small amount of terrified shouting, he was able to kill one before tripping over his own feet and slamming into the forest floor with a loud cry. He quickly flipped himself over so he wasn’t crawling defenselessly on the ground, and as he struggled to get away he quickly glanced up in the trees to find three spiders staring down at him. It wasn’t easy to see up in the trees, he couldn’t make out Warriors at all but since he didn’t think the other man would just sit around and watch him fight for his life, he was forced to assume there were even more up there.

The skulltula on the ground ran at him and he let out some strange sound of distress as he scrambled backwards. It was coming at him way too fast for comfort and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get to his feet in time, but he fucking refused to die like this so he swung his sword at it anyway. Somehow, someway, he managed to stab it from underneath and the way he twisted his blade free of the monster was enough to kill the thing.

Before War could take another breath, he heard Warriors cry out and there was a loud thud as something hit the ground. 

“Warriors??” he shouted, looking up to try to find his friend, just in time to watch four skulltulas descend from the trees. 

Fuck fuck fuck, he’d only counted three before!! 

War ran to try to put some space between himself and the spiders, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to take all of them by himself and he needed time to come up with a plan, but as he moved and got a better view of the clearing, his eyes landed on something that filled him completely with dread.

Warriors was laying on the ground in the middle of the group of skulltulas, head turned away from him and arms bound to his side with webs. His friend must’ve fallen from the trees, and he wasn’t moving from where he’d landed on his stomach.

War knew the other hero could take a lot of damage but… With how still he was and considering the height he’d just fallen from, War was more than worried. He forced himself to take a deep breath and slow his frantic thoughts because now he couldn’t really afford to be running around like an idiot scared out of his mind, he needed to get to his friend as fast as possible.

“C’mere,” he yelled to get the spiders’ attention so none of them would go after Warriors. He had to make himself look really interesting somehow, he didn’t think the skulltulas would want to go after a moving target when there was one that wouldn’t be moving also right there, but War was going to make them want to go after him more. 

He didn’t really have any sort of item use to get their attention, his fire rod would’ve been nice but Wild was holding on to it for him, but there was one thing he knew he always had that could potentially keep the spiders from getting bored and decide they’d rather eat Warriors than deal with him. He’d just have to work quickly because he didn’t know how long he could hold his focus spirit with how low his magic felt.

Raising his sword and feeling the magic start to flow through him, War used his increased speed to run at the spider furthest away from his friend. He hoped that by attacking that one and not charging at them that he wouldn’t push the other skulltulas towards Warriors, and he prayed that a glowing golden blur would be shocking enough to the monsters that they’d want to chase him and he’d completely capture their attention.

He knew he didn’t have long before he ran out of energy so he moved as fast as he could, using his enhanced speed to beat back the skulltulas and flip them over when they scurried after him. It’d been so long since he’d felt magic flowing through him like this. He’d forgotten what it was like to be this strong. He’d avoided using his focus spirit around his friends because he knew how it made him feel after, but he refused to let Warriors get killed by some spider. He didn’t know if getting eaten was something vampires could survive but he was going to assume that it wasn’t, and he was going to protect his friend.

It took nothing at all to kill two more skulltulas, and he knew when he turned to face the last one that his focus spirit was about to break, so he didn’t even raise his blade. He just stood there with a smirk on his face as golden light exploded around him, evaporating the spider.

War almost fell over when he moved to run to his friend, his vision was spotty and the world was spinning, but through the power of sheer determination he convinced his legs that they did know how to work and he didn’t stop until he dropped to his knees at Warriors’s side.

“Warriors?” he called, hands hovering over the other hero for a second before he gently rolled him over, trying to tear the webs off him as he did.

His friend was unresponsive, and War’s eyes widened when he saw blood staining his hair and dripping across his forehead from a wound just at his hairline. There was dirt all over him too from him slamming into the ground, and as War carefully felt for his pulse he noticed a bite on his neck. 

“Oh fuck…” he whispered, looking back up at Warriors’s face for any sign of the other hero starting to wake up. The longer Warriors laid there not moving, the worse War felt. “Warriors? Warriors, can you hear me?”

The first thing Warriors became aware of was a throbbing headache that made his stomach twist. The second thing he became aware of was somebody calling his name. With great effort, he opened his eyes but closed them quickly when the extra little bit of light in the forest made his headache worse. He opened his eyes again, though much slower to let himself adjust better. 

He opened his mouth to respond but even that took more effort than it should have. Warriors tried to move his fingers and toes and he found that while he could, it didn’t feel right. His arms and legs were numb, so it wasn’t exactly painless to move them to begin with, but it also felt like there was a brief pause of some sort between his limbs and his brain, like it took a second for his body to realize that he wanted to move it. 

Warriors forced himself to think about what he could remember. He could remember being surprised that those giant fucking spiders could shoot web at him. He could remember one of them touching him along his neck while he was struggling. He could remember the struggle and the weight of the spider on him making him fall. Was it the spider? Was that why it felt weird to move? Did it do something to him? He knew that spiders could be venomous. 

Shouldn’t be resistant to venom? He could consume hemlock. Why would venom affect him?

Warriors could move his eyes just fine at least. He could see War. At least he wasn’t alone when moving was hard and exhausting. 

“... War?”

“Hey,” the other man offered him a small smile. “Good to see you recognize me, you fell from pretty high up and hit your head.”

Oh, well that explained the headache. He groaned, partially in frustration at how heavy and slow his body felt, but trying to talk was making his nausea worse. “It’s… hard to move,” he finally spat out, moving his hand so that it was closer to War. “Shouldn’t… happen." 

“What do you mean?” War frowned, digging through one of the pockets on his belt for something.

What was the easiest way to describe it? Warriors couldn’t say much at a time, both because he found it difficult and because he didn’t want to get sick. “Feels heavy,” was what he settled for. 

“You’re shaking a bit and you’re not looking so good,” the other hero told him gently, “I’m starting to think maybe vampires aren’t so immune to skulltula venom. What do you think would help right now? Blood? I have a potion too.” War held it up for him to see.

“...Venom?” he asked quietly. Did they bite him after all? How could venom affect him? He was pretty much immune to hemlock and that tended to kill people a lot faster than venom. Shouldn’t it be weaker and thus something he should be able to shrug off? 

“You’ve got a bite on your neck,” War confirmed. 

“No,” he said firmly. Warriors didn’t want to believe that he was feeling any effects from venom. He might have only been half-vampire but if hemlock couldn’t affect him, he had a hard time believing that venom could. He tried to force himself to sit up but only managed to push himself up a little bit before his head spun and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. His arms lacked the strength to keep himself up so they buckled and he found himself flat on his back again. “No…” 

“It’s okay,” the other hero said softly. “Try not to move around so much, you might’ve broken something when you fell, I didn’t have time to check. What do you think would help more, blood or healing potion?”

“Blood but.. Don’t know…” He didn’t know if he could really drink at all. It was hard to speak, so he wasn’t sure he could bite and draw blood as it might require more coordination than he was capable of at the moment. He also wasn’t sure if he could retract his fangs quickly enough if War started to feel bad. 

War stared at him for a second, trying to figure out what he meant before he asked, “You don’t think you can drink? Is it that you don’t think you can swallow? Because I can hold you up if that’s what you need.”

Warriors could feel his eyes sting from the tears that were beginning to form. He couldn’t believe he was being affected by venom and he couldn’t believe that he was in a position where he didn’t think he could drink the very thing he needed to feel better. “Can’t drink,” he answered, biting his lips to keep the tears back. He reached for War again, his hand finding the other hero’s pant leg. 

War slowly moved towards him, giving Warriors plenty of time to say something if he didn’t want to be touched and when he didn’t tell him to stop, War came closer and gently lifted him up so he could hold him in a careful hug. He didn’t have the strength to really return the hug but he rested his throbbing head on War’s shoulder. 

The last time he was hugged like that, it was because he lost control and Time held him until he passed out from exhaustion. It was weird to think that he was being hugged for a similar reason, that he needed to be consoled because of the lack of control he had over his own body. 

Warriors didn’t say anything and War didn’t either but he didn’t mind too much. The hug was comforting enough and honestly, said enough. He had his doubts before about War leaving him but they were all more or less erased now. 

It took several minutes for him to relax enough to be able to think. He needed to figure out a way to drink blood that didn’t need a lot of coordination on his part. “I can… maybe… lick blood.” 

“Yeah?” War carefully shifted him a little to free one of his arms.

“Yeah… not hard… to do,” he mumbled. He was beginning to feel dizzy now and for a second, he was worried that the venom could be affecting him more before Warriors remembered he also hit his head. He found himself wishing that it was his head making him dizzy. 

“Are you okay if I move you a little bit so you can drink easier? And so I can use my arms?” 

Warriors considered it for a moment. He was dizzy but he was going to feel bad either way, so he might as well be in a position that would actually help. “Go ahead.” 

The other hero was very gentle as he sat him upright, making sure he didn’t move him too quickly and taking care to support his head so it didn’t flop over and hurt his neck or make him even dizzier. War shifted behind him before letting Warriors slowly tip backwards until he was leaning against him, and then he took off his right bracer and rolled up his sleeve. 

“You need me to do it or you got it?” War asked, holding his arm up.

Warriors responded by extending his claws. It took more effort than he wanted to admit to get one of his claws close enough to War’s arm to scratch him and make a little bit of blood pool to the surface of his skin. War moved his arm closer to his mouth, allowing him to lick it up. Without him having to say so, War squeezed his arm and let Warriors lick up more blood. Once War’s arm began to scab, Warrior decided that he had enough for now, so he settled himself against War. 

The other hero shifted a little behind him, leaning back slightly and using both arms to hold himself upright. “Better?”

He closed his eyes. “I need a few minutes.” 

“I’ll let you sleep all you want but first you need to tell me if you think the venom is still an issue.” War’s voice was firm though it also kept a gentle tone.

“Hmmm, probably not. ‘Lena said that… vampires don’t die slowly,” he mumbled, forcing his eyes open as if that would give War more confidence. He wasn’t sure if it did. “Just wake me up later.” 

“Alright,” the other hero said softly, moving him carefully to rest more comfortably on the ground. 

Warriors closed his eyes again and let himself drift into a light slumber. When War called his name to wake him up, he felt like it was too soon and he just wanted to go back to sleep, but he forced his eyes open for War’s benefit. “How long has it been?” he asked quietly. 

“About an hour,” he told him, “I just wanted to check on you. How’s your head?”

“I’m not as dizzy,” he answered. “And it’s easier to talk, so I should be able to drink blood now. I was worried I wasn’t coordinated enough before.”

“That’s good,” War sighed. “I was going to let you sleep longer but I was worried you might’ve been concussed.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I still have a headache,” he mumbled as he tried to sit himself up again. Warriors’ arms shook with the effort and he managed to sit up for all of three seconds before his spinning head made him feel nauseous and he had to lie down again. He groaned. “Too fast.”

“Do you want me to help you up?” War offered. “Or do you need to lay down for a minute?”

“Help me up, please,” he answered. “Before you do though… Uhhh… I think it would be easiest for me if I could bite your neck. I know it’s a big ask but I think it’s the best way to support me while I drink.” 

The other hero’s eyes started to widen before War’s face froze, and then after a split second it relaxed back into a neutral expression. 

“Okay,” he said quietly, loosening his scarf and collar and pulling them away from the side of his neck.

“I’m surprised you’re agreeing to this. I appreciate it but you know you can say no, right?” 

“I know,” War mumbled, giving him a small smile as he reached down to pick him off the ground and lean him against him so Warriors’s head was resting on his shoulder. “Just… Can you not grab my neck, please…? I’m okay with you biting it, but… Can you please not hold it?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Let me know when you need me to stop, okay?” Well, he knew War knew that but it didn’t hurt to remind him, especially since he really liked drinking from the neck. He first steadied himself by putting a hand over War’s upper bicep on the opposite side, then placed his fangs on his neck, hesitating for a moment before piercing the skin. 

War’s blood wasn’t special but it was still very good, and it almost seemed to taste better when it came from so close to his heart. It was pleasantly warm and fresh, and it was easy to get a lot of it into his mouth quickly. He kept drinking until he felt War tap him on the top of his head, so he retracted his fangs and just rested his head on War’ shoulder. There was still blood on War’s neck and while Warriors hated letting blood go to waste, he didn’t think War would appreciate people licking his neck. His arm was one thing, but War unsurprisingly felt vulnerable about his neck, so he left it alone. 

“Thanks,” the other hero whispered. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, I still need some time though. I’m sorry this is taking so long,” Warriors mumbled. “I don’t even know why the venom affects me.” 

“It’s alright,” War told him, gently resting his head on top of Warriors’s. “You don’t need to apologize for that.”

“I am stopping us from getting away from dead spiders,” he said, rolling his eyes at the situation he found himself in. “I don’t even know why I’m so affected by spider venom of all things. Hemlock only makes me a little sleepy. Hemlock kills people a lot faster. I don't like it.”

“Has anything ever affected you like this before?”

“No. Hemlock doesn’t do this to me, and Legend’s blood made me feel like shit but not to this extent,” Warriors mumbled. “Even if Legend’s blood did something like this to me, at least I know it’s because of the light magic, which I doubt this venom has.” 

“Yeah…” War sighed. “Is there anything else that hurts besides your head?”

“My chest hurt when I tried to sit up earlier. I wouldn’t be surprised if I broke some ribs.” The pain was starting to dull though. Maybe if he was lucky, he only bruised them so there wasn’t much that needed to heal but if he learned anything on this particular adventure, it was that he was rarely so lucky.

“Did you need more rest or do you think a healing potion could help get you up?” War asked, lifting his head up. “I want you to take as much time as you need so you don’t hurt yourself, but we should also get away from here before it starts getting dark.”

The potion would probably do good for his chest but he wasn’t sure if it would help the muscle weakness, so Warriors decided to try and move his fingers and toes. It was easier to move but he didn’t think he was at the point where he could walk yet. “I don’t think it would hurt. It would help my chest, at least.”

“Yeah? Do you need help or do you think you could sit up by yourself?” 

Warriors hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not he was actually strong enough for that. “I don’t want to try to sit up right on my own right now,” he finally answered. 

“Okay.” War adjusted how he was sitting so he could still support Warriors and grab the healing potion from the pocket on his belt again. “Do you want to drink this now or do you need a minute?”

“I think I can drink it now. I haven’t felt sick since I had more blood.” 

“That’s good,” he said as he handed him the little bottle. Warriors took and while his arm shook a little, he was strong enough to hold it up and drink. He didn’t want to use the entire potion but War was right about the fact that they should move to a better spot before they lost daylight, so he drank the entire thing and passed the bottle back. 

“How much time do we have?”

“Probably around five hours,” the other hero told him, shoving the empty bottle back in his pocket. “You can get a little more sleep if that’s what you need.”

“I think I do,” he admitted. Warriors wasn’t as tired as he was before but the sleep was something he needed to heal and he knew better than to fight it. “Can you help me down?” 

War let out a small hum and gently lowered him back down to the ground before unpinning his own scarf and folding it up, and then gently tucking it under Warriors’s head.

“Don’t let me sleep too long. I think I only need an hour or two…” Warriors mumbled as he closed his eyes and let himself drift again. Like last time, he opened his eyes again when he heard War calling his name. Without thinking, he sat up like he would have done any other time he woke up before he remembered that sitting up was hard to do before his nap. He felt surprisingly alright. His chest still hurt a bit and his arms and legs felt a little sore but he could move them without an issue. 

“How are you feeling?” War asked, closing up his journal and putting it away.

Warriors didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stood up just to see if he could and see if he could keep himself balanced. He took a step forward. “Sore, but well enough to get going. How long did you let me sleep this time?” 

“Closer to two hours,” the other hero said, pushing himself to his feet and going to grab his scarf off the ground. 

“So about three hours left to see if we can find a town.” It wasn’t impossible to find a town at this point but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. “Is my face alright?” he asked as he tried to feel along his hairline to find the wound. 

War nodded. “You’re looking a lot better too, you were a bit pale earlier.”

“Really? Paler than I already am?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow as he dug it into his bag for his mask. Once he found it, he put it on his face and pulled his cloak on. “Ready to go?”

“Ready,” War responded, pinning his scarf in place so it was far away from his neck and would stay there.

Getting out the webby forest wasn’t too difficult thankfully, though he did find himself worried about how regular animals would fare in the forest now that the spiders changed it but they had to move on. Maybe a good rain would displace some of it. They found themselves back on the road, leaving the forest and all the dead spiders behind. 

Warriors couldn’t say he was in a very chatty mood, but found himself opening his mouth to speak anyway. “Thanks for everything back there,” he started. In the very least, War deserved that. 

“Of course,” War said quietly. “I’m glad I could help.”

“Are you feeling okay after I drank your blood? It seems to hit you hard whenever I do that,” he asked with a frown that War couldn’t see behind his mask. 

“After some rest, yeah,” the other hero nodded. “I was a bit dizzy earlier but I had some of the rest of my dried apricots so I’m feeling alright now.”

“Do you need an orange? We still have some, I think. If not, I have apples. They need to be eaten anyway.” 

“That would be good I think, thank you.” War gave him a small smile.

Warriors stopped walking for a second in order to dig through his bag for a couple of the oranges. He only took one of them out but he kept one on the top of his bag to keep it handy in case War wanted a second one. Once he found the orange, he passed to War. “Here you go, Oranges.” 

War let out a laugh as he took it, smiling wider. “Thanks.”

They walked in silence after that, with the exception of Warriors passing along another orange for War to eat as they walked. Much to Warriors’ amazement, they did in fact, find a town just as the sun was beginning to set.

“I think I figured it out. If we go through absolute shit, we will find a town to sleep it off,” Warriors said, mostly to himself but he was loud enough for War to hear.

“How nice of the gods to let us find rest after throwing at us the worst thing they can think of,” the other hero sighed.

Well, Warriors was sure they could do worse than send them to fight spiders, but he wasn’t going to challenge them and say it out loud. “We should be thankful they give us rest. We don’t want them to change their minds, after all,” he said as they walked into town. “Are we buying dinner tonight?”  

“I need to,” War mumbled. “If you’re not in the mood for that and would rather sleep that’s alright but I should really eat something before I go to bed.”

“I think I will just sleep,” he said after thinking about it. He already had blood so the last thing he really needed to feel completely better was sleep. “We’ll check in first though and make sure the innkeepers know we’re together.” 

The town was a bit smaller than the second but still bigger than the first town they found right beside the freezing mountain, so the inn wasn’t hard to find but it took them a good ten minutes to walk there. They went up to their room together, where War dropped off his things and left again, but Warriors stayed. He took a quick look in the mirror he saw in the room and if War thought he looked better, he hated to see how he looked before. He was still paler than usual and he was starting to go dark under his eyes.

And his nose still wasn’t completely straight. 

Warriors rolled his eyes at his reflection, removed his layers until he was just wearing his undershirt and pants, and slipped into bed.

Chapter Text

For the first time in a good while, War didn’t wake up with a headache. He was so used to it that when his eyes first opened he spent a moment frowning up at the blurry ceiling wondering why he felt weird before his tired thoughts could work fast enough to put together that it was because he didn’t feel like shit. Which was also strange considering the whiskey he’d drank after dinner and how awful he’d been feeling most of yesterday afternoon.

He’d been incredibly lucky that he’d had a small amount of snacks left in his bag that he’d been able to eat while Warriors napped and recovered, otherwise War was sure he would’ve ended up passing out. Between having used his focus spirit and giving blood to his vampire friend twice, he’d gotten rather dizzy and while Warriors had been taking his last nap before they’d gotten moving, War had just laid on the ground next to him and stared up at the trees. It had the added benefit of not just helping him feel better, but also letting him make sure no skulltulas decided to come back for a hylian sized snack while they were vulnerable. 

He had been feeling better after some rest and with the oranges Warriors had given him as they walked, and also after having gotten to eat a full dinner, but he didn’t expect to actually be feeling good when he woke up. War didn’t think he could even feel the near constant ache in his lower back anymore. Maybe the mattresses in this inn were magical, or maybe he’d immediately feel miserable once he sat up, he wasn’t sure. 

There wasn’t any real rush to get to his feet, a quick glance at the little bit of window he hadn’t covered completely with the curtain last night told him it was still fairly early in the morning and War didn’t expect Warriors to wake up for quite a while, but War was used to getting up early. He liked being up to watch the sun start to rise, it gave him time to appreciate the quiet before people started to wake and it gave him time to properly prepare for his day and feel ready to go. Routine had been something he’d been missing since he’d been separated from his brothers, and he had a feeling (or rather a hope) that falling back into his familiar morning patterns might make him feel better.

So with a small sigh, War carefully pushed himself upright, and frowned in confusion when still no headache appeared. 

“Huh… Weird.” He mumbled to himself, getting to his feet and slowly stretching to wake himself up more. 

He knew better by now than to dwell on little miracles like this for too long because they’d find some insane way to disappear, so instead of continuing to stand around thinking about it he headed over to the window to look out at the small town, cracking it open a little. It’d been nice feeling the weather warm up the further south they travelled as he and Warriors had left the mountains, and even though the morning air was a bit chilly, War figured it should end up being a tolerable temperature later in the day. He stood there for a moment, leaning against the wall, just watching people start to appear and begin their days. The sound of the birds chirping slowly became accompanied by the sounds of small carts being rolled across stone as the stand owners down in the market set up and by soft chattering as the town began to wake up.

It was so much more peaceful than what he observed from his own window back in Castletown. A huge city like that had been somewhat difficult for him to adjust to when he’d moved there, it was so much busier and louder than what he’d been used to. When he’d first been drafted and stayed in the barracks with other soldiers around his age, he’d never really seen that many people before in one spot, and on rare occasions when he’d been allowed to just walk around the city it’d been so overwhelming because of the sheer amount of things going on. There were so many people, many speaking languages he’d never heard before and the majority had been speaking a language he was supposed to have known, and it’d felt so cramped. The streets were always busy and packed and people were always coming and going as if they were running late. And even now, close to thirteen years later, when he could actually speak Common and with his rooms in the castle decently far away from the noise of the city, it was still a lot.

War much preferred small towns like this. This was far more familiar to him, quiet little places where most people knew each other and helped out their neighbors, and said ‘Hi’ to familiar faces every morning. 

Turning away from the window with a small sigh, he looked over to where Warriors was still sound asleep. He seemed decently comfortable, curled up on his side with an arm slung over one of his pillows, but War walked closer just to check on him and make sure he looked okay. Yesterday had been rough for him, not that losing an arm and being impaled had been easy or fun, but Warriors had reacted to both of those injuries with annoyance. With the skulltula venom he’d almost looked scared, if not incredibly overwhelmed, which was understandable considering he hadn’t known something like that could affect him. 

After confirming that his friend was still breathing and that the pillow wasn’t squished against his face in a way that might prevent him from continuing to do so, War walked away to let him sleep, heading to freshen himself up for the day. His hair was still bothering him quite a bit, he had nothing to straighten it with and nothing to help make it less frizzy and messy looking, but he did what he could to make his curls look presentable. He was likely never going to be happy with them until the next time he was able to wash them and use the proper products or until he could straighten them again, so he forced himself to turn away from the mirror before he lost it and cut them all off.

Getting dressed took less time than usual, simply because he didn’t bother with his bracers, gloves, pauldron, sword, or really anything that made him look like he was actively heading off to fight something. In his experience traveling with his brothers, that only made the townspeople more anxious and rather suspicious of him, and since he could assume that he’d at least have a few hours to explore before Warriors woke up, he really didn’t need those things. His paranoia had him keeping his chainmail on as well as some of his hidden daggers because there really was no guarantee that nothing would happen, but those weren’t visible to anyone who didn’t know they were there.

War also made the decision to leave his scarf behind, folding it up nicely and leaving it on his bed with the pin resting on top, gently running his fingers over the embroidery at the end before stepping away. He’d been just as shocked with himself as Warriors had been yesterday when he’d told the other hero he was okay with him drinking from his neck, he usually hated feeling anything touch it which was why his scarf was always so firmly pinned in place and why every shirt he owned was either loose around the neck or cut to be that way. He hadn’t lied to Warriors when he’d told him he could bite him, and he’d appreciated how Warriors had seemingly double checked to make sure he really was fine with it and how the other hero had let go the second War had told him too, but he’d gotten a little overwhelmed and it would be nice to have a small break from things near his neck until he could fully calm himself down. Luckily his hair just covered the two little marks because he’d pulled his collar wide open enough that some curious person otherwise might’ve seen them and gotten confused. 

Or maybe the people in this era did know about vampires and seeing those marks on his neck could anger them and make them not trust Warriors and himself. Just because War hadn’t had a real idea of what a vampire was before he’d met his friend didn’t mean everyone else was the same as him.

He’d ended up fixing his collar before leaving the room, making sure to tightly close the curtains and lock the door behind him, so that it was closer to the sides of his neck. Just in case. The feeling of the fabric brushing against his skin bothered him a bit and he wasn’t even sure if there was a real risk or if this was something Warriors would just laugh at him about later, but he’d much rather be safe than sorry. He’d never forgive himself if he did something that ended up hurting his friend.

War wasn’t quite in the mood for breakfast just yet, so he politely declined the innkeepers’ offer when they saw him come down stairs before heading outside to explore. He shivered slightly in the cold, but with the thicker tunic he’d bought a few days ago and the fact that it was still early, he knew he’d warm up if he just started moving. And the first place he found himself walking to was a small little store that sold all kinds of berries, dried fruits, and nuts for him to restock his bag with. The peanuts certainly called to him, but even though Wind wasn’t around him War didn’t buy them and instead settled on getting more cashews and dried apricots, this time a large enough serving of each to hopefully last him a long while.

When he pulled out his wallet to pay, he blinked at it in shock. He knew he didn’t have access to all of his money, since the good majority of it was back home in his era and the large chunk he’d taken out for travel was being stored with the rest of his belongings in Wild’s slate, but he hadn’t realized the small amount he’d had had gotten so low. He supposed it made sense, since they’d stayed several nights at inns and he’d paid for the bathhouse, and they’d gone to eat and drink and War had restocked his supplies, but this meant that either they soon wouldn’t be able to afford supplies and food or he was going to have to find a way to get the rest of his money. 

He thanked the shop keeper as he took his snacks and tucked them in his snack pouch on his belt, and then headed to another small store nearby because he knew they needed more healing potions. Making sure they didn’t die on the road was a good use of his money, and after buying a few bottles he headed back to the inn so he could leave them with the rest of his things and fully count out how much he had left.

Warriors hadn’t moved much in the time he’d been gone and he still seemed to be doing fine, so War left him to sleep while he emptied his wallet and tried to calculate how much longer they could keep going like this. He had no idea how much Warriors had on him, but just with what he had they could afford a few more nights at an inn and a few supply restocks before he ran out. And without him knowing how much longer they’d be traveling together, such a low amount of rupees was enough to have him a little concerned since he wasn’t sure how he could go about getting more.

Though it seemed as if the gods were feeling a bit generous towards him today, because after he’d left the inn again to go back out and explore the town he didn’t get too far before a frantic and stressed out man crashed right into him, having run around a tight corner without seeing that War was there. They both landed a little roughly on the stone, and War was a bit rattled from the sudden impact but his racing heart started to calm down when the man began apologizing profusely as he helped War to his feet. 

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, sir,” he said, reaching to brush War off before War gently held his hands out to stop him.

“It’s alright,” he told him, giving the man a small smile. “Is something wrong?”

“My cuccos,” the poor guy wailed in distress, reaching up to grip his hair. “I woke up this morning and my fence was wide open and they were gone!”

“Do you need help looking for them?” War offered, since he really had nothing better to do and he’d feel horrible walking away knowing this man was left searching the town all by himself.

“That would be wonderful,” he sniffed, “thank you so much. There are six of them total, and I live in the small house just behind the weapons shop if you’d be so kind as to just stick them in the pen there.”

“Of course,” War nodded and reached out to shake the man’s hand when he held it out to him. “I’ll do my best.”

With a new goal for the day, he walked further into the small town, keeping his eye out for the fluffy white birds. He’d never been the biggest fan of cuccos, Linkle used to chase him around with them when they were little, but he knew if he didn’t hurt them in anyway they wouldn’t become aggressive, so when he found the first one wandering an alley with a bucket trapped on its head he gently scooped the thing up with no issue.

“Adventure’s over, little guy,” he sighed as he took the bucket off the cucco’s head. 

The bird of course just stared at him, not necessarily with a look of gratitude for granting it its sight back, but it also didn’t look like it wanted to peck his eyes out so that was a win in War’s book. 

It wasn’t too hard to locate the weapons shop or shuffle between the buildings to reach the pen the man had told him about, and on his way from the alley where he’d found the first cucco to the pen he’d found another just splashing around in a puddle and scooped that one up too. Carefully sticking both birds back in the pen, he made sure the door would close firmly behind him so they wouldn’t get out and make him chase them down again. He’d honestly expected this to be a little more difficult, given how distressed the man had been, but maybe the guy was just really upset over having lost his animals to the point it made it difficult for him to search properly. War could understand that to a degree, if he ever lost Rosie or Delilah he’d probably just shut down and cry.

Cucco number three was also rather close to the pen, War found the bird inspecting the flower pot outside a nearby house and quickly snatched it. This one had been a little more upset with him than the previous two, but ultimately it took almost nothing for him to pick it up and bring it home. 

The fourth he found towards the entrance of town, staring out across the path towards the forest like it was considering starting a new life there and War quickly put an end to those thoughts by scooping it up as well, and he found the fifth one on the way back trapped inside an open barrel. He’d heard a strange sound as he’d passed it, and he wasn’t sure what had possessed him to go back and double check, but he was glad he did because he found a little cucco in there running into the wooden sides of the barrel.

“How’d you even get in there??” He mumbled to himself, staring down at the bird in confusion as he struggled to reach down far enough to get it out while also keeping his grip on the other cucco. 

The one in the barrel wasn’t the most helpful creature, in fact every time he tried to get his hand under it to grab it in a way that would be supportive and not painful, it bolted to another wall of its self made prison, making it that much harder to grab. Eventually War just gave up, noting the location of the damned thing and deciding to come back for it once he had two free hands. He dropped off number four, grateful to see all the cuccos he’d already caught were still in there, and he headed back to the barrel with a sigh but to his absolute shock when he got there the bird was gone.

“What the fuck??” He gasped out, poking his entire head into the barrel to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him, but no. The cucco was gone. And he was positive it was the same barrel because he’d made sure to note it was the one against the side of the tavern. “Where did you go??”

“Excuse me?” A soft voice behind him startled him and War jumped away from the barrel, looking around with wide eyes until he saw an older woman standing there.

“Oh, I’m sorry ma’am, I was just-” He started rambling, feeling the need to explain himself. “There was a cucco in that barrel just a minute ago and I couldn’t get it at the time so I thought I’d just come back for it but now it’s gone.”

The woman laughed at him and War couldn’t quite tell if she didn’t believe him and thought he was ridiculous or if the cuccos got out so frequently that this was a common occurrence, but he felt the tips of his ears burn and he stood there awkwardly until she’d stopped laughing enough to speak.

“Oh George and his silly birds,” she sighed, and War relaxed a little. “He goes in there to talk to them sometimes and then at night he gets so tired he forgets to lock the door to keep them in! It’s very kind of you to be helping him.”

“Well, he seemed very upset and I didn’t want to make him look for them all on his own,” War told her. “And I’ve already found four of them in what, just under an hour?”

“It’s still kind of you,” she smiled. “Anyways, I’d seen you pass by a few times and well… You’re just a bit taller than I am and I was wondering if you could help me grab a few things I can’t quite reach, when you have a minute.”

“Sure!” War agreed, brushing his hands off on his tunic and trying to straighten himself out a little. He didn’t really consider himself to be tall but the woman was clearly shorter than he was and if there was something she couldn’t reach, he might as well do his best to get it. “If it’ll only take a minute, I might as well do it now.” He wasn’t sure how long it would take him to find the last two cuccos and he didn’t want this poor lady to be left needing someone’s help when it seemed like she just had a quick task for him.

“Thank you so much,” her smile widened as she gestured for him to follow her into the tavern. “My nephew usually helps me but he’s feeling a bit under the weather right now, and there’s just this big heavy pot I can’t seem to get.”

She led him towards the kitchen storage area where the big door was already propped open, and pointed up at the pot in question. It certainly was a bit high up, but War could just reach his fingers into the space between the pot and the handle if he lifted his heels off of the ground and he carefully pulled it off the shelf, making sure to have one hand ready to catch the bottom of it so the full weight of the pot didn’t come crashing down on his head. It was probably a little too heavy for him to be lifting like that, but he got it off the shelf without dropping it or letting it fall on someone, and he even carried it onto the counter for the lady so she didn’t have to lift it.

“Oh, you’re amazing,” she beamed at him. “Thank you so much.”

“It was no trouble at all,” War assured her, trying not to look as out of breath as he felt.

The woman dug around in her pocket for a moment before holding something out to him. “Here, for your troubles. I insist.”

His eyes widened when he realized she was trying to pay him five rupees just for that. “Ma’am, you don’t need to-”

“I insist,” she repeated, practically shoving the money in his hand and making it clear there was no chance for him to argue. 

War felt bad for getting paid for doing absolutely nothing, but the woman was quite stubborn and he did kind of need the money, so he thanked her before leaving the tavern and resuming his hunt for the cuccos. Which ended up being a bit easier than he’d thought it might be because right as he stepped outside he almost trampled one, and he let out a startled sound. 

The bird didn’t appreciate nearly getting squished, nor did it like the noise he made, so it bolted off across the street, heading into the alleyway. 

“Oh no you don’t,” he grumbled, quickly shoving the rupees into his wallet as he took off after the cucco. 

It’d been such a long while since he’d found himself chasing after those things, he’d forgotten just how fast the fuckers could be, though he was frequently told by the people in his life that he was the fastest runner they’d ever seen and eventually he did catch up with the bird and grab it. It wasn’t happy with him, it kept struggling to break free and squawking at him, but War kept his grip on it until he set it in the pen and slammed the door.

“Alright,” he sighed, “one more.”

In his search for the last cucco, he found himself getting pulled aside for some other small jobs around the town. One of the wheels on a small cart had popped off and the old man pulling it hadn’t had the strength to firmly attach it back on, so War bent down and helped him and the man had been insistent that he take three rupees for it. A younger man with a broken leg had woken up after the postman had come around to collect letters to be sent and had paid War five rupees to run after the guy and get the letter to him. A sweet couple newer to town had found themselves in a state of distress because they’d torn a blanket they intended to gift to a friend and the only seamstress in town was too busy to assist them, so War had spent a few hours mending it to the best of his ability and they’d forced him to take a rather large amount of money for it.

“I can’t possibly take this,” he shook his head, trying to give back the hundred rupees they’d handed him.

“You did such a beautiful job,” one of the women insisted, “far better than what we could’ve done ourselves, and if we’d taken it to a shop anywhere we would’ve paid more.”

“This is an awful lot,” War said quietly. He’d spent a long time sitting in the shade working on it, but the only other thing he had to be doing was searching for that damned cucco so he didn’t really think he deserved that much. 

“Please,” the other woman pushed his hand back towards him. 

He wasn’t sure how he felt about not being listened to, it made him quite anxious when he refused something and people pushed him anyway, but there was nothing he could say that was successfully changing their minds and eventually they just walked away leaving him standing there in the street. He felt bad accepting money, he knew he’d technically earned it, but with the sheer amount he made from his job that he believed was so excessive, he felt bad taking from other people. And technically he and Warriors did need money right now, but he still didn’t feel like he really deserved it. Some little voice in the back of his head always told him it was stealing to accept money from people simply for just being a good person and helping out.

“Sir?” A voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he blinked a few times before his eyes landed on a small stand to his left. When she noticed him looking at her, the lady behind the stand smiled at him. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he gave her a friendly wave as he headed over. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Oh, no,” she laughed, “I was just wondering if there were other kinds of needlework you did besides sew? I was watching you mend that blanket, and you did such an amazing job with it.”

War felt his cheeks grow hot, he wasn’t really used to people complimenting his work and while he’d grown up being taught those skills because it’d been intended to be a profession, it was certainly more of a hobby now. 

“Um… Y-yeah, I do some other stuff. Do you need me to-”

The woman cut him off again with a friendly smile, “No, no. I just wanted to give you this.” She reached across the stand to give him a small bag, and when he opened it he found some different yarns and spools of thread neatly packed together. “I know a craftsman when I see one, you may have been running around chasing cuccos all day but you looked truly relaxed while you were working on that blanket.”

He had no idea what to say, he was actually feeling a little overwhelmed. Usually if people from the eras he’d visited assumed something about him they correctly guessed he was a soldier, more often than not because of how he dressed but he’d also been told he always looked tense and ‘on guard’. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the lady’s observation that he’d seemed calm while working on something familiar to him, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that had he never been a soldier he probably would’ve stuck with needlework.

“How much do I owe you for this?” He asked, not oblivious to how his vision was slightly starting to blur.

“Nothing at all,” the lady told him, and War’s heart sank because he couldn’t take all she’d given him for free. “These are all scrap pieces left over from projects that I can’t quite sell since they’re smaller bundles than what else I offer, but there’s still plenty there to make something with. I myself have no need for them, so I was planning on just giving them away anyway and it would make me happy to see them go to someone who needs them.”

“Are you sure…?” War asked slowly, unable to tell if she was just lying to make him feel better.

“Very sure,” she nodded. 

“Thank you,” he said quietly, trying not to actually start crying. It’d been a while since he’d been able to knit something, and yarn was never really a priority for him on the road when there were more important things to buy. 

“Of course,” the kind woman smiled. “Have a good rest of your day, and don’t wear yourself out too much looking for those cuccos.”

He let out a small laugh as he backed away, “I won’t. You have a good day as well!”

Since his hands were now full with the bag he’d been given, he decided to stop by the inn again to drop it off and check on Warriors. He’d been periodically checking in on him all day, just to make sure he was still living and also to see if he’d woken up yet, but when he opened the door to their room he found him still asleep. The other hero had moved a bit since he’d last seen him, now sprawled out across the bed, but he was still very much unconscious. War frowned slightly, placing his bag down next to his scarf and walking over to get a better look at his friend. He knew Warriors would be sleeping for a long time, and he’d been told ‘a long time’ could apparently mean days, but he was still a bit worried because it was getting close to dinner and the other hero had shown no signs of waking up.

He wasn’t sure if he should wake him up at all, Warriors needed to heal so the sleep was good for him, but War didn’t know if it’d be a good idea to get him up so he could talk to him and make sure he was feeling okay before letting him go back to sleep if he wanted. He’d been decently sure that the risk of the venom killing him wasn’t something he needed to worry about anymore, but he couldn’t stop his thoughts from telling him he should make sure his friend was alive before leaving him again so War gently pressed his fingers to Warriors’s pulse point.

He was aware his hands could be cold sometimes, but the other hero had been so clearly gone to the world that War jumped when after he felt a few steady beats beneath his fingers, Warriors’s head rolled in his direction and he hissed at him. It wasn’t even the first time he’d been hissed at but the reaction had been so unexpected it’d startled him, and then of course once he’d yanked his hand away his friend went back to sleeping just as deeply as he had been.

Well. Definitely alive, then. Maybe War just worried too much…

Confident that Warriors would be fine for the time being, he headed back out to find the last fucking cucco. He’d really thought he would’ve found the thing by now, and he had no proof but he was convinced it was the same little shit that’d been hiding from him in that barrel. He was starting to feel a bit hungry, he had stopped around noon to get a bite to eat and he’d had some snacks throughout the day so it wasn’t that he felt like his sugar was low, but he refused to stop until he found that last bird.

He searched in all the barrels again, he went down every alley, he looked under every crate, he tried asking people if they’d seen a cucco recently and they all said no. He’d even run into the man who’d lost them, George, and asked if he’d somehow found the bird and not told War about it but George wasn’t having any luck either. War didn't consider himself to be a quitter, and he refused to stop until he found the bird, but his back was seriously starting to ache and he was getting more than a bit frustrated. 

It was when he’d gotten down on his hands and knees to peer into the tiniest corner imaginable that he’d found the cucco. It stared at him smugly, he didn’t have to guess if cuccos could feel smug he knew it in his heart, and did nothing but just sit there as he twisted his shoulders and neck into the most uncomfortable angle to grab it by the foot and pull it out from between the rocks and crates it’d hid behind. He was still gentle with the bird, as pissed off as he was he’d never hurt an animal, but anyone passing by wouldn’t have assumed he was being as careful as he was because the cucco started thrashing and squawking and pecking at him like he was killing it, and War screamed in frustration and pain every time it hit his poor fingers. It took a while to get a good grasp on it and it was a fight to carry it up the street and all the way back home, but he finally did and he threw the door to the pen open for the last time before chucking in the bird and closing it. 

Once it’d landed amongst its friends, the cucco turned and looked at him in what War assumed was the closest thing to a glare a cucco could manage, but at this point he didn’t give a shit. He’d spent all day looking for that fucker and now that his brain knew he’d completed his task, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

“Oh! There you are!” George sounded quite cheery as he skipped up to where War was leaning his back against the pen door, panting a bit. “And you got all my cuccos!! Oh thank you! Thank you so much!! Here!!”

For the first time that day, War didn’t argue when the man handed him fifty rupees for his troubles. He just thanked him, assured him his evil little birds were ‘no problem to find’, and then started making his way back towards the inn with the intent to eat dinner and go to bed. Though he only made it about halfway before a teary eyed little girl stepped right into his path. She was trying very hard not to hyperventilate or start loudly sobbing, and he couldn’t help but feel weird about the fact that none of the other townspeople were questioning why she was crying or offering to help her, considering how friendly they’d been to him all day.

Forcing his exhaustion and frustration to the side so she wouldn’t pick up on it, War crouched down a little to her level. “Hey, what’s going on?”

The little girl turned to stare at him with the biggest, saddest eyes he’d ever seen and sniffled, “It’s my cat. She’s stuck in a tree and I can’t get her to come down.”

War frowned, looking around to see if there was anyone else acknowledging this crying child. He was well aware that he was new in town and didn’t want to look like he was kidnapping someone’s kid, though he hoped with all he’d done for the townspeople today they wouldn’t assume the worst of him, but he couldn’t seem to find anyone who might’ve been responsible for watching her. He knew better than to ask where her parents were, he didn’t want her to have to tell them if they were dead or something, but with no one else even paying attention to the fact that she was close to just sitting down in the middle of the street and having a breakdown, he supposed he’d have to be the one to help her.

“Can you tell me where she is and I’ll try to get her for you?” He offered, and the little girl nodded, taking his hand and leading him down the main road to the edge of town.

He hated the part of his brain that screamed at him that this could be a trap of some kind, but with the way his life tended to go he wouldn’t be surprised. He’d been having a more than lucky day, people had been incredibly kind to him and he’d been having fun helping people out, so it really was just about time for something to go horribly wrong but when the little girl stopped in front of a tree, sure enough there was a cat in it. Unfortunately for him, though, it was an incredibly tall tree and he knew enough about cats at this point to know there was no way in hell the little creature was coming down. He’d have to go grab it.

“She’s up there,” the girl pointed to where he’d already seen the cat. “She won’t get down.”

“It’s okay,” he tried not to sigh too loudly, or let the kid know that he was terrified over the idea of climbing up that high. “I’ll get her.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to climb things, in fact he was actually quite good at it. He was used to climbing the roof with his sisters as a kid, he’d climbed up more than a few vine walls and trees in order to get to a higher surface, War just wasn’t a fan of the height part of climbing. It made him feel dizzy and incredibly nauseous, and he knew it was an irrational fear but there was genuinely nothing he hated more than being stuck up somewhere high.

And yet, because no one else would, he found himself slowly working his way up the tree to rescue this poor girl’s cat. 

Getting up was never the hard part, and to his surprise, grabbing the cat hadn’t been either. The poor creature was so ready to come down to the ground that she didn’t fuss much when War reached for her. He’d given her plenty of time to sniff his hand and waited until she allowed him to pet her head before he picked her up, and then she remained fairly calm when War held her close to his chest so she wouldn’t fall.

Getting back down, however, with one less hand, a cat, and shaking legs, was incredibly difficult. He wished he could close his eyes so he didn’t have to see how small the town looked from all the way up where he was, but he needed to be able to see where his feet were going so he didn’t fall to his death. The little girl’s cheers were completely drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in his ears, and he was freaking out so badly he almost fell a few times. But eventually he made his way to solid ground, even if he barely remembered how the fuck he’d done it, and he kept his smile straight and steady just long enough until the girl was distracted by having her cat back in her arms before he let himself take some deep, grounding breaths. 

The little girl ran off after thanking him over and over again, and he was glad he’d been able to get her her cat back but his hands didn’t stop shaking until he’d made it all the way back to the inn and sat down to eat, several hours later than he’d planned to. Dinner was wonderful, and he made sure he told the innkeepers that when he’d finished before he headed back up to his room for the evening. To absolutely no surprise, Warriors was still dead asleep, this time curled back up on his side. He didn’t move at all the entire time War spent getting himself ready for bed, or even when War accidentally ran right into the wall.

“Well, Warriors,” he sighed as he crawled into his own bed, exhausted after such a long day of doing things. “I hope you feel better when you wake up.”

Of course there was no answer, he wasn’t expecting one, so War just made himself comfortable and let himself drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Warriors felt pretty good when he woke up. His muscles were a little sore but he chalked it up sleeping in or perhaps, he slept in a weird position. He stretched, sat up, and stretched some more, before he finally looked around the room and spotted War in the other bed. He was leaning against the headboard with his scarf around his shoulders like a blanket, knitting. He didn’t know War had knitting needles or yarn but he did have thread and a regular needle, so what did he know? 

“What time is it?” he asked as he reached for his bag to grab an apple. He was surprisingly hungry and he just had blood yesterday. 

War had been so focused on what he was working on he must not have noticed him waking up, because he jumped a little when Warriors spoke. “Oh hey! It’s a little before noon, close to ten. How are you feeling?”

“Mostly just hungry. I just had blood yesterday, so I don’t know what the problem is,” he answered as he bit into an apple that he pulled out of his bag. 

“Two days ago,” War said gently.

Warriors must have heard him wrong. Two days? He slept for a while sometimes but the only time he slept for more than a day was when he used his vampire powers and focus spirit at the same time. Even when most of his body was burned, the other vampires woke him up to make him drink blood a few times a day, at least. “Sorry?” 

“It’s been two days,” the other hero repeated. “You were pretty sound asleep yesterday so I just let you rest.”

Warriors could only stare until his brain completely processed what War actually said. “I wasted so much time…” he mumbled once he found himself able to speak again. “What did you even do while I was sleeping all day?” 

“Quite a lot, actually-” War blinked at him. “I got some more healing potions for us, and also we’re up a hundred and sixty three rupees.”

Huh, he never thought about the fact that they might have been running low on rupees. Warriors quickly finished his apple, then located his wallet to count what he had left. He only had two hundred or so, which was enough for a few days at an inn, maybe more if they went to a particularly cheap inn. Maybe they should start being more frugal with their savings and camp outside more. “How did you manage to do that?” 

“I just kinda walked around and helped some people out with a couple things,” he shrugged. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a small town and not treated as a hero or seen as a soldier, and I think I missed being part of a little community like this so when people asked me if I could help out, I did. Granted back in my village people never paid me for doing little things, but the townspeople here are very generous and refused to let me say no.”

“Sounds you got your wish then. You were just some guy for a day,” Warriors said with a smile. “I guess you wouldn’t have gotten that if I was awake yesterday.” It didn’t feel like they wasted a whole day if War got to enjoy being helpful to strangers. Besides, he probably really needed it between his head injury, the venom, his stupid broken nose, and whatever made his chest hurt. 

“Oh… I guess I did,” War frowned down at his yarn for a moment as he thought about it before shaking his head a little as if to clear his mind and turning back to look at him. “Did the blood and all the sleep help?”

“Yeah, I feel pretty good,” he answered, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice. It was the best he felt since he left the vampire estate.  “I’m just a little sore from sleeping for so long. It’s nothing a walk can’t fix.” 

“That’s good! I’m glad you’re feeling okay,” War gave him a genuine, crooked smile. “Do you want to get breakfast before we go or are you good with your fruits?”

“Maybe we should be more frugal,” Warriors mumbled. “How many rupees do you have after you helped the town?” 

“Around four hundred,” War estimated. I calculated a few more nights at inns with meals plus a few supply runs yesterday morning before I earned anything.”

“And I have two hundred… I suppose breakfast wouldn’t hurt then.” He was pretty hungry, after all. He’s been through worse, like when he decided to cut out solid food for five weeks. However, if he had more food, then he wouldn’t need blood as often and he would rather not leave town without eating something that was filling. He got up to make himself look presentable, which took more time than he liked since spending a whole day in bed fucked up his hair. “Huh, my nose is fixed now,” Warriors noted when he judged himself in the mirror for one last time. 

“Hey that’s good!” War said from behind him, working on packing up his own things and getting ready to go out.

They left when Warriors was sure they had everything and paid for one last meal at the inn, which they ate in one of the common areas. Warriors got himself bacon and sausages while War got eggs and sausages. 

Leaving town was a little awkward, however. They ran into people War helped while he was busy sleeping in bed all day. There was a man who thanked War for helping him find his cuccos and assuring him that they were all all accounted for today and there was a little girl who thanked him again for getting her cat down. War didn’t say what he did to help people but it sounded like he did a lot more than he let on. However, the most awkward thing was a covered, horse drawn wagon that was blocking their exit out of town. There was a man and two women standing around the wagon who were too busy arguing with each other to move their wagon. 

“Look, it can be very dangerous out there! Didn’t you hear that there were monsters in the forest? We would be stupid if we left without being armed,” the man said. 

“We’ll be in big trouble if we’re late again!” one of the women, one who had dark and wavy brown hair, shouted. The man looked ready to argue again when the other women, who looked to be related to the man with her auburn hair, laid eyes on them. 

“You guys have swords!” 

That was enough for the other two to pause and look at them. Warriors awkwardly cleared his throat. 

“Where are you two headed?” the man asked. 

“Castletown,” he answered. 

“Good. Our stop is on the way. We’ll pay you to accompany us.” 

“Where are you headed?” War asked, trying to seem casual but Warriors knew him well enough by now that he could tell he was more than a bit suspicious. 

“Just the next town but it’s a whole day of walking away and we’ve been hearing weird things about the forest lately. One man said he saw giant spiders just three days ago!” the dark haired woman answered. “We’ll make it worth your time and we’re headed the same anyway.” 

Warriors glanced at War and when War caught his gaze, he offered a quick nod. 

“Alright, we’ll escort you to the next town. We’ll discuss the price later,” Warriors answered. All three of them lit up. 

“Thank you, thank you, we’ll make it worth your time!” the man said. “My name is Dale. This is my daughter, Amy,” he said, gesturing towards the woman who noticed they were armed, “and this is Karla, my business partner.” 

“My name is Link,” Warriors said, eyeing War. Was he going to use Link as well or was he going to pick some other name? He just hoped that whatever name he picked, he didn't pick War or Warriors. Those names only made sense to the two of them. 

“Eleno,” War said a little too easily to have made it up. “We’ll make sure you all arrive there safely.”

Warriors tilted his head at him but he didn’t say anything. If it was important, War would tell him later. 

“Let’s get going, shall we?” Karla said, jumping up to the front of the wagon to steer the horses. Much to their credit, Dale and Amy stayed on the ground with them. All four of them kept to the side of the wagon, not too far in front that they would miss anything sneaking up from behind and not too far back that Karla or the horses could get hurt before they could attack back. 

“That’s a fancy mask you have there,” Amy said to break the silence. He wasn’t sure how War was feeling exactly, but he didn’t mind entertaining their temporary group if War wanted to keep to himself. 

“Thanks. My friends made it for me. My skin is sensitive to the sun, so I have to keep it covered.” 

“Ohhh,” she mumbled. “They must care a lot then.” 

“They do. I haven’t seen them in a while with all the travelling I do but we still keep in touch.”

“I get that. We travel a lot for business too,” she added. “Dad and I are from a village south of Castletown. Karla’s from a different town but her hometown isn’t too far from ours.” 

“Business really brings you all the way up here?” Warriors asked. 

“We trade in fabrics, dyes, leathers, and other such materials. We help supply all the tailors and seamstresses across Hyrule. We also sometimes sell their goods on their behalf and we take a cut of the profit,” Dale explained. 

That seemed to get War’s interest a little bit. “All across the kingdom?”

“Yeah, it’s a lot of work. It’s the family business for both of us. We have more children, siblings, and cousins running all over the kingdom securing contracts and making other deliveries,” Karla answered from her spot on the front. “We’re supposed to be on our way home by now but most people up here don’t suggest travelling right now because of the monsters. You two are doing us a big favour.” 

“Have the monsters been worse than usual?” War asked her.

“Up here? Yes. I heard that a lot of people are getting attacked by skeletons on this stretch of road and I’ve heard that people noticed a lot of skulltulas nesting in the forest on the other side of town. We were here a month ago and the roads were relatively safe!” Karla grumbled. “I’m going to see if my kids are interested in picking up a sword when I get home!”

Warriors glanced at War. It definitely seemed like they were still following the shadow and he couldn’t help but to wonder if the shadow went all the way to the castle or not. If the shadow was causing problems in other parts of the kingdoms, he wouldn’t be comfortable leaving without cleaning it all up.  

Judging by the way War stared back at him, he felt the same way.

“It’s always good to know how to defend yourself,” the other hero said as he turned back towards Karla, “though I do hope the area becomes safe again.”

“Hopefully. We’re three days late on this shipment as it is,” Dale added. “Say, is that why you two picked up the sword? To defend yourselves?” 

“Something like that,” Warriors answered. “We’re travellers who got separated from our friends, and we would have died a long time ago if we couldn’t defend ourselves.” It wasn’t that far from the truth.

“Admirable trait, that is. We could use more people like you around. The knights mostly just keep to Castletown these days. They only go out if the royal family allows it.” 

Ah. Twilight did have a poor opinion of the knights in his era but if War was correct with his estimation, then they were in an era sometime after Twilight’s. He wondered if the knights were still the way Twilight described or if they improved but the royal family was holding them back. Either way, he didn’t like it.

“Well, if it helps you feel better, we did take care of the skulltulas. Well, mostly, Eleno,” he said. It felt weird calling him something other than War at this point. “There are people out there who use their talent to help other people.” 

“Is the royal family aware of how many monsters there are around?” War asked with a small frown.

Karla shrugged. “I doubt it would make a difference if they knew or not. Unless the monsters show up on their door or attack somebody important, they won’t care. The previous Queen cared about the people. Her son does not.” 

War huffed out a laugh. “Gods forbid he do his job protecting the people of the kingdom instead of just sitting in luxury all day getting nothing done.”

Warriors had a feeling that if he and War were alone, the other hero would have much more to say. He didn’t have anything good about the king in his era, from the few times War said anything about him, so Warriors had a feeling that War was holding himself back in a conversation about a bad king in a different era. Warriors couldn’t disagree with him either. The king in his era wasn’t in the picture anymore but the War’s king sounded awful and the king their current companions had to deal with also sounded awful. 

“So is there anybody to help you?” Warriors asked. 

“Gorons help us sometimes if there are monsters near Death Mountain or Kakariko,” Amy answered. “And there are some warriors in the south that come from Ordon but they only take care of monsters near Faron or Ordon. They don’t like the current king either, so they refuse to go any closer.” 

“It’s good there’s someone to help,” War mumbled. “Though I’m sorry your king won’t defend you as he should.”

Karla shrugged. “I guess the silver lining is that he doesn’t really get in our way either. It’s like the rest of the kingdom doesn’t exist outside of Castletown. At least we’re not paying more taxes just to get a whole lot of nothing in return.”

“I take it you two haven’t been in Hyrule for a long time if you’re surprised,” Dale added. 

“Yeah, it’s been a while,” Warriors mumbled, looking at War once again. “Our parents are friends and we moved out of the kingdom when we were young.”

The other hero nodded to agree. “It’s been a little strange being back, there are a lot of things that have changed or that we aren’t used to.”

“Where did you guys grow up?” Amy asked with a tilt of her head. 

“Just a small bit past the southern edge of Hyrule Kingdom,” War answered. “There are quite a few small villages there, and it’s nice and warm too.”

“Sounds like a nice spot for vacation after spending so long up here,” Dale said quietly, but loudly enough that Karla still heard him. 

“We gotta make it back first and with all these monsters around…” 

“I think these two have it handled. Not that we can relax of course, but I feel safe with these two.” 

Warriors blinked at Dale but otherwise, tried to keep the shock from appearing on his face. He could never quite get over a civilian saying that they felt safe in his hands. They didn’t know him or his background but in his opinion, that made Dale’s comment seem more genuine. 

They kept up with small talk. Sometimes the three of them asked questions about the two of them but at some point, conversation turned back to their business. Warriors could sew and could appreciate fine fabric and how to work with them. His aunt taught him how to sew and it was one of the few times he could remember where she was patient and encouraging, so sewing never really brought up bad memories for him. 

War was better at sewing than Warriors was and he was interested in their business when it was first brought up, so Warriors wasn’t surprised that War had more questions when conversation when the conversation cycled back to what was in the wagon. 

When the sun was beginning to dip too low for Warriors’ liking, they ultimately decided to set up camp and make their way to town early in the morning. When they found a nice place, Karla and Dale set up a fire and began preparing dinner while Amy and War secured the horses. Warriors set up the bedroll and blanket he had for him and War to share. 

“Eleno and I have a watch schedule, so we’ll keep an eye out for monsters while you sleep. We don’t mind,” Warriors said.

“We’re very used to it,” War added, “we’ll let you know if there’s any trouble.”

Dale simply nodded. Warriors honestly expected a little bit more push back. He wondered what they did for sleep when the roads were safe - did they always manage to reach town? “Well, the least we can do is feed you then. It’ll be a simple rice dish but it will fill you up.”

“What’s the schedule? You both get enough sleep, right?” Karla asked, raising an eyebrow at them. 

Warriors nodded. “I get the first watch and we switch half way through the night. It’s not ideal but it works.” 

“We do try to sleep in towns when we can, but when we’re not able to this works fine,” the other hero agreed.

“Do you ever find trouble?” 

“Not since we came back,” Warriors answered with a shake of his head. “But you never know, so we always have somebody on watch just in case, even if it seems safe.” 

Honestly, it was a shock that they haven’t run into anything at night so far. Everything they encountered they found during the day, when they were awake and alert. Of course, that could change based on the fact that Karla said skeletons were spotted. In Wild’s era at least, they always popped out at night, so Warriors wouldn’t be surprised if they were attacked at night. 

Suddenly, Amy appeared beside him and War, holding a large pot in her hands. “Can one of you come down to the stream with me?” 

War glanced at him quickly before pushing himself to his feet with a small nod. “Sure.”

“Can you fill my flask too?” Warriors asked as he grabbed his bag to fetch it. He only ever filled it with enough water to rinse all the blood he had in there before out but he should probably be drinking more water while he was in front of regular people. He wasn’t sure how ‘normal’ he looked to these people so far but regular people drank water, not blood. Once he had it, he tossed it to War before he could walk too far away. War caught it easily and left with Amy. 

It was only when War left did he realize that he could take his mask off too. He shoved it into his bag. He also took the hood off his head. 

“I was wondering when you would take that off,” Karla mumbled. “Are you sure that mask is the only way to protect your skin? It must be annoying to have it on all the time.” 

“The mask isn’t too bad. I’m used to it,” he answered. “I’ve tried lotions and just the hood of my cloak but I still got burned.” 

“That’s too bad. I can’t imagine having to hide from the sun all the time,” Karla added. For a moment, Warrior was afraid that they thought that his sensitivity was too strange, but she didn’t seem to dwell on it. “The important part is that you found something that works for you.” 

Warriors just nodded. She didn’t need to know that it was his friends that did it all for him and if it was just him, he would just use the lotion and continue to bitch about his face getting burned all the time. His brothers got him the cloak and Zelda, Impa, and Proxi helped him with the mask. They made sure that he had something to protect himself with. 

Amy and War returned. The pot Amy had was placed on top of the fire while War passed his flask back to him. Karla, Dale, and Amy were focused on dinner, so when Warriors thought that they weren’t paying attention to the two heroes, Warriors whispered to War, “Are you going to eat their dinner?” 

“I don’t know,” War mumbled. “They seem nice and friendly enough, and it’d be weird of them to try to kill us since they want our protection, but…” 

“Do you want me to taste it first?” he asked, again only loud enough for War to hear. “We need to keep our strength up.” 

“That would be nice, thank you,” the other hero said quietly.

“Does it help to watch them prepare it?” 

“It does,” he nodded. “I just don’t want to hover over them so I’m trying to watch from here.”

Warriors decided to stop talking so that War could focus. Eventually, dinner was served - it was rice served with some vegetables cut into small pieces and eggs. It smelled good to him and after eating a small amount to see if he could taste anything odd in it, he started shoveling it into his mouth. They were right - it was simple but filling and also tasty. 

War seemed to understand that it was safe because he slowly started eating as well, and after a good few bites he looked up towards their temporary traveling companions and said, “This is wonderful, thank you.”

Karla simply nodded while Dale continued, “You guys are doing us the bigger favour, the least we can do is feed you until we make it to town and pay you properly.” 

“How much were you thinking of paying us?” Warriors asked. He would take anything they had since he wasn’t quite comfortable with the amount they had, but he was still curious. 

“We can spare three hundred so for each of you, it would be one-fifty that sounds alright with you,” Karla said with a shrug. 

War blinked in surprise and quickly swallowed his food. “That’s more than alright.”

“Great. It’s all yours as soon as we get into town. For now, eat up since you two have a long night ahead of you.” 

It didn’t take long for everybody but Warriors to start preparing to sleep once they ate all the rice and cleaned up. Eventually, it was just Warriors and the fire, which he tossed some more sticks into. He kept his sword and shield beside him, just in case he needed them. 

Warriors had nothing to do but think. He tried to think about what his brothers could be doing without him and whether they missed him as much as he missed them. He thought what it would be like when he was finally reunited with them and he would inevitably have to leave War and probably never see him again. He got attached to the other hero and he wasn’t really ready to never see him again. Warriors wished he could have both - his new friend and his brothers. 

But eventually, he would have neither. 

Eventually, he would only have the vampires. 

Then he heard a sound that was out of place from the fire and the soft breathing of his companions. He shot to his feet, putting his shield on his arm and withdrawing his sword from its sheath. He could hear a branch snapping and a distinctive rattling that reminded him of bones grinding against each other. It only took him a couple of seconds to spot the first stalfos… and what looked like a weird skeletal dog. Once he spotted the first one, he could see more and more and he quickly realized that they were at risk of being surrounded. 

“We have company!” he shouted loudly, putting his sword back into its sheath in favour of pulling out his bow and firing an arrow through the skull of one of the stalfos. Until War was also in action, he didn’t feel comfortable attacking them with his sword, but he could take a few of them out with some arrows. 

The other hero was up on his feet in a matter of seconds, drawing his sword and looking around until his eyes landed on the monsters around them.

“Oh, these guys,” he mumbled.

“Ever seen the dogs?” Warriors asked as he looked behind him. The other three obviously couldn’t be as quick as war veterans but they were moving into the wagon for shelter. Good. That meant they just needed to defend the wagon and defend the horses. “Cover the wagon, I’ll protect the horses.” 

“Got it,” War gave him a quick nod before sprinting towards the wagon. Warriors fired a couple more arrows, then put his bow and arrows away to move towards the horses, withdrawing his sword as he did so. They were already anxious, not because of Warriors and his vampirism, but because they knew there was trouble. He wanted to soothe them but that could wait until there wasn’t any more danger. 

He was beside the horses for all of two seconds before the skeletal dogs began to close in. The regular stalfos seemed to be focused on War and the wagon but the dogs were after him and the horses. They were easily killed by a slash of his sword. 

Okay, so not exactly a challenge.

More of the skeletal dogs approached but Warriors took care of them before they could look at the horses the wrong way. 

War seemed to be having an easy time getting rid of the stalfos. He didn’t let them get anywhere near the wagon, his blade went right through them and had them falling to pieces.

Despite how easy they were to kill, there was an annoying amount of them. Warriors could see how travellers, like their companions, would struggle with the sheer number of them. However, to Warriors - and probably War - they were just a nuisance. An annoyance. A warm up. He was sure War also dealt with mobs that only had numbers on their side and while they could become overwhelming, the stalfos and their weird dogs did not get to that point. 

Warriors killed the last skeletal dog he could see, keeping his sword out just in case another snuck up on him. He spotted War killing the last stalfos. 

“See any more?” he shouted to War. 

“No!” the other hero answered, squinting into the distance to see if he could find any more. “I think that’s it.”

It took a moment for Warriors to remember that War’s eyesight wasn’t the best and he probably should have known better than to ask War if he could see anything. However, he couldn’t see anything either, even after very briefly summoning his fangs before their companions could exit the wagon. He retracted them when he was satisfied that they were in the clear. 

“Let them know they’re safe to leave,” Warriors called out before putting his sword away and turning towards the horses. “It’s okay, they’re gone now,” he said gently as he gently started petting the horse that seemed to be the most anxious. 

He could hear War telling their companions that the monsters were gone before they stepped out of the wagon, looking around to check for themselves. Warriors wanted to stay around the horses and help them but he went and joined them. 

“I don’t think more will come and the camp will be safe but it’s also covered in bones and might not be comfortable,” Warriors said, gesturing towards the remains of the stalfos. “Also, the horses are still anxious, so if we are moving, we need to calm them down first.” 

“I can help,” Amy said, heading towards the horses. 

“If you think it’s safe, I think we can just clean up a bit,” Karla said with a sigh. “Thanks for all that, by the way. We would have been in a lot of trouble without you two.” 

“It’s not a problem,” Warriors said as he started picking up bones and chucking them away from the camp. 

War joined him, grabbing some of the bones and tossing them as far as he could. “I’m scared of cursing us by saying it outloud, but that was shockingly… not very hard.”

“I think this might be the first fight where neither one of us got hit,” Warriors said with a nod as he threw more bones. It would have been fun to see how far he could throw them with his vampire powers but he knew better than to get into that kind of trouble. “I think we were owed an easy fight. One of these fights had to be easy.” 

“Five rupees says next fight is back to the same old near death experience with us getting our asses beat,” the other hero joked.

“Come on, that’s too easy,” Warriors said with a laugh. Then, quietly, he added, “The real bet is what kind of injury I’ll get next.” 

“‘None’ would be ideal,” War sighed, “but it’s us and we aren’t lucky enough to make it through two fights without anything happening.”

“No injuries may be ideal but not likely,” he mumbled. “Are you good take watch once we get this clean enough? I don’t think you have much time to fall asleep before you have to get up anyway.”

“Yeah that’s fine,” War nodded, standing up straight before twisting to the side to crack his back so he could go back to throwing more bones. 

Warriors winced. His hearing was not something based on whether or not his fangs were out, so War cracking his back was pretty loud to him. “You good?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

War blinked at him in confusion. “Yes?”

“It was loud…” Warriors said with a frown before he went back to throwing bones. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the other hero looked at him a little concerned. Warriors wasn’t sure what that was about.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled as he just focused on clearing up the camp. Since Amy was still busy with the horses, though they seemed much happier, it was the four of them cleaning up camp but it didn’t take too long for them to get the area around the fire and their bedrolls clean. “You’ll make sure nobody else wakes me up, right?” 

“Yeah,” War nodded. “Do you want me to wake you up around when they start to get up?”

“Yeah, just because you’re understanding doesn’t mean they’ll be. They’re already late, I don’t want to delay them any further,” Warriors answered quietly. He was thankful that War was understanding but that was at least in part because War knew why he needed the sleep. He knew he was a vampire that needed sleep to heal. “Or have to explain what a vampire is because I hissed at them.” 

“Got it,” War gave him a small smile. 

Warriors tucked himself into bed, just as he saw their temporary companions begin to settle back down for sleep too. He glanced at War one more time, curled up so that his face was hidden in his arm, and fell asleep. 

“Link,” he heard War call. “Link, it’s time to wake up.”

Warriors groaned, forcing his eyes open as he did so. He blinked at War, confused as to why the other hero was calling him Link before his mind caught up and he remembered that they were travelling with civilians. “What time is it?” he grumbled, burying his head in his arms again. 

“Seven,” the other hero told him. “Sorry it’s so early, you wanted to make sure you were up before the others were fully awake.”

Right, he did want to wake up early so that they wouldn’t see any possible signs of his vampirism. He knew how he could in the morning when he didn’t feel like waking up even though he really needed to. He sighed and slowly forced himself to sit up, rubbing at his eyes as he did so. Now that he was upright, he could see that their travelling companions were still in their bedrolls. 

“Do you think they’ll eat breakfast or just get going?” he asked, throwing his scarf over his head to shield himself from the sun. 

“I have no idea,” War sighed, fixing his tunic and straightening out his collar to make himself look presentable for the day. “If you’re out of the fruits you had, I have some things I got from town if you want something to eat?”

“I think I have a couple of apples,” Warriors mumbled as reached for his bag and looked through it. “Yeah, just two left. Want one?”

“I don’t want to eat the rest of your food,” he said quietly.

Warriors decided not to argue with him and insist on it. He knew War had his own stash for snacks and he wasn’t going to mention the fact that he could always drink blood out loud. He ate both of the apples and put the mask on his face.

“You guys ready to go?” Dale asked. “We should be able to get to town by noon, so we’re going to skip breakfast and eat lunch when we get there.” 

“Almost,” Warriors responded, getting off the bedroll so he could pack it up. 

War got to his feet and did a quick check around the area to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. “I think we’re all set.”

It didn’t take long before they were on the road again. This time, Dale and Amy were up on the wagon with the horses while Karla walked beside them. 

“You two really are good with a sword,” she said simply. 

“We’ve been at it for a few years. Eleno’s been at it longer than me though.”

“That’s just because I’m older,” War added. “But yeah it’s been a while since we first picked up a sword.”

She hummed. “I thought you two were about the same age.” 

“No, he’s a few years older,” Warriors answered. “Not by much, but still.” In the very least, War was old enough to be out of the war longer than Warriors had been enlisted for. His entire military career fit into the pocket of time where War ended the war but decided to stay in the military. 

“Oh, yeah?” she asked. 

The other hero nodded. “Our parents wanted us to be able to defend ourselves from monsters if we ever needed to, so they made sure we wouldn’t be defenseless before they sent us off. But obviously they didn’t want to tell us all about the monsters when we were too young, so, I learned first.”

“Your parents sound like smart people,” Karla said with a smile. Warriors was glad he was wearing a mask so he could hide the frown on his face. He was sure his parents would have wanted him to be able to protect himself. He knew his parents wanted him to be safe, otherwise he would have ended up in an orphanage or something instead of with his aunt, which he liked to tell himself would have been worse. He never starved and his aunt never hit him.

Warriors glanced at War. “Yeah, they are,” he answered, trying his best to sound convincing. He hoped he didn’t come across as the orphan that he was. 

“Do you two have any tips for beginners? Assuming one of our kids wants to pick up swordplay, of course.”

War was quiet for a moment as he thought before he answered her. “I’d suggest first getting used to swinging around something if they don’t have any experience at all, it’s important to be able to move with a sword and to be able to swing it quickly and it would be good to first practice with something that isn’t sharp. They could also work on hitting a target in the right places, whether that be a dummy or a dead tree it doesn’t really matter, just practicing getting the blade to the points they want to. Also sparring: working with a moving, unpredictable target is incredibly helpful. I was first taught with wooden training swords and while you can still hit someone pretty good with them, you at least don’t risk cutting a friend.”

“And how long did it take before you felt like you were skilled enough to go out on your own? Personally, I’m not confident until I’ve done something with consequences a lot,” Karla said quietly before continuing, “I know it’s not comparable, but I didn’t feel confident making sales until I’ve made some sales.”

“Hmm…” War frowned, “The fact that I knew there would probably never be a situation where I was completely alone helped with my confidence when I was younger, but I’d say it took me a few years until I really felt sure of my ability to fully protect myself.”

Warriors nodded. He didn’t have much to add, not that he was in the mood to talk much anyway. 

“Hopefully, we have more than one kid who is interested then. It’s too bad we can’t hire you two. We might have to ask one of those swordsmen from Ordon.” 

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Karla. Somebody has to say yes, first,” Dale said from his spot on the front. She hummed and let out a sigh. 

When Karla had turned away from them, War waved his arm a little to try to get his attention and once Warriors looked over at him he mouthed, “You okay?”

Warriors wasn’t sure if War knew sign, or that they shared common signs, but he figured it was a good time to try. If War didn’t understand, they could talk later when they were alone. “Don’t like talking about my parents,” he signed to War while Karla was still looking away from them. 

“I’m sorry,” the other hero signed back, looking at him with concern though he could also see the guilt on his face.

“Not your fault,” he responded back with his hands. 

There weren’t as many conversations after that, or at least not any that War and Warriors needed to participate in. Karla, Dale, and Amy got busy talking about what they needed to do when they got home and if they needed to hire more help to get there or if they should risk it and hope that they’ve left the monsters behind by now. War left him alone to stew in his thoughts too. Warriors knew that he wasn’t doing the best job at managing his emotions. He was lucky that War still talked to him after all the times he snapped at the man. 

“Looks like we’re here!” Dale announced. Warriors looked up. They were at the gates of the town. “We can’t thank you two enough.”

“Open your hands,” Karla said, fetching a bag from Dale and pulling something out before returning it to him. She walked up to them and dropped three purple rupees into each hand. “As promised.” 

“Thank you. It really wasn’t a problem though and it was nice meeting you,” Warriors said simply. He had enough time to keep his voice steady. 

“I wish you luck on the rest of your travels,” War smiled. “Thank you for cooking for us.”

“Be safe!” Amy called out. 

“Good luck to you too,” Karla said with a smile, giving them all one last wave but Dale got the horses going again and they went into town. 

“Let’s find an inn. I could use a nap,” Warriors mumbled. He had to wake up early, yes, but the conversation about parents made him feel drained. He wasn’t sure how he went so long without thinking of his aunt or parents before but he kind of wished he could go back to being able to leave them in the past. 

“Sounds good,” War nodded, heading down the main street of the town. Warriors kept an eye out for the moon symbol he came to expect from an inn and pointed it out to War once he found it. They quickly went inside, only to find the innkeeper looking up from their book at them and back down again. He let out a sigh once he did so. Warriors couldn’t help but to worry that maybe they didn’t have any rooms left for them.

“I only have rooms with single beds. Sorry if that’s a problem. I can offer a discount for the inconvenience though.” 

“We’ll take the discount,” Warriors answered. He had to sleep in cramped spaces before and he already did sleep in the same bed as War a couple of times. They could handle it. He paid, they got their keys, and went up a small set of stairs to find their room. Their room didn’t look too bad. The bed, which was in the centre of the room, looked to be a bit bigger than the other single beds that they had in the other inns. There were a couple of small tables with a chair at each and an empty chest at the foot of the bed to put their stuff into. 

Warriors wasted no time in getting his extra layers off, putting them inside the chest as he did so. He crawled into bed. “Wake me up for dinner, okay?” 

“Around six sound good?” The other hero asked, “Or would you want to eat later?”

“Six sounds good,” he said. He might even wake up before then. He wasn’t injured or anything, he was just emotionally drained. “Don’t have too much fun while I’m out.” 

If War responded, he didn’t hear it. He fell asleep quickly.

Chapter Text

War sat towards the foot of the bed, partially because he wanted to give Warriors some space but also because there was a thin line of sunlight from a break in the curtains, far enough from the bed that his vampire friend wasn’t at risk of being burnt but close enough that he could swing his legs and feel a little bit of warmth. He hadn’t wanted to go too far from the inn, even if he hadn’t wanted to take a nap. He was still tired from walking around so much and only getting half a night’s sleep, so he found himself just relaxing and pulled out the yarn he’d been given so he could knit. 

There were a lot of things that were very hard for him to remember, things that frustrated him because it made no sense how he could forget something that had happened directly to him, but as messed up as his memory was he, for some reason, never forgot the exact size to make the sweaters for his dear cats. That information was so firmly stuck in his brain he didn’t think he’d ever forget it. So he sat there and he worked on his little project, letting himself relax and enjoy the peaceful silence, until it grew close to six and it was time to wake the other hero up.

He felt a bit responsible for making Warriors upset earlier, and he didn’t want to hover too much but he did want to make sure his friend was alright. He was just also a little worried about saying the wrong thing and making Warriors even more upset, even if he probably had deserved it the last several times, he didn’t want the other hero to snap at him. 

“Warriors?” he called, packing up what he was working on and turning to look at his friend. “You wanted me to wake you up for dinner.”

Warriors groaned and stretched his legs before he rolled over onto his back. “Six already?” 

“It is, yeah,” War nodded, pushing himself to his feet. “Do you want me to go out and bring you something? If not, I think we can probably find a tavern?”

“I’m not quite awake if you don’t mind getting something,” Warriors mumbled as he sat up. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m so tired.” 

“That’s alright,” he told him, trying to keep his expression neutral as his concern grew. “Is there anything in particular you’re hungry for?”

“Something with meat, I think. Vegetables are nice too, of course.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” War offered him a smile before heading out of their room, shutting the door softly behind him. 

Maybe Warriors really was just tired, he understood the exhaustion that came after being overwhelmed, but he couldn’t completely shake the worry that there was something else going on. He didn’t think the other hero would lie to him, at least he hoped at this point that he wouldn’t, so he just had to trust that if there really was something going on that Warriors would tell him if it was something he needed to know.

It didn’t take him too long to find a place to grab some food, a small little place that let him take both their meals ‘for the road’ with no issue. He got some pastries filled with ground beef and vegetables, and based on how much they’d eaten previous nights and given that the pastries were kind of small,he thought that they could each have two. On his way back he passed a small stand selling fruits. They all looked wonderfully fresh, and when War’s eyes landed on the plums he ended up buying a few. He was pretty sure Warriors liked plums, the other hero hadn’t really said anything about it but War had seen him have some so he knew at least that his friend didn’t hate them. And he also knew Warriors had just eaten his last two apples, so even if the pastries were enough for him for dinner, he could maybe save the plums for the road.

It was a little difficult to hold their dinner and all the plums he’d bought and open doors at the same time, but he hadn’t been called creative during the war for nothing so he found a way. He was at a bit of a disadvantage since his left hand was weak, especially after a whole afternoon of knitting. His wrist had been aching and his hand had been trembling all evening, and the weight of their dinner and the plums was more than that hand could grip at the moment without dropping. He couldn’t quite grab the doorknob either but he managed to balance the plums on his forearm, holding them against his chest, and use the two fingers he could afford to spare from the hand that was actively holding the small bag with their dinner to open the door.

And honestly he’d never felt more accomplished in his life.

Well… That probably wasn’t true, but he was so excited by his success and it was hard to think of a time he’d last felt proud of himself so he took the win for what it was. The innkeepers gave him a weird look that clearly read, “Why didn’t you just knock, we could’ve gotten the door for you?” but they didn’t say anything as he carefully made his way up the stairs to excitedly open another door.

He felt fucking awesome when he succeeded a second time, and he used his foot to push the door shut behind him as he entered their room. 

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him. He was thankfully starting to look more awake and he perked up even more when War walked in. “I could have opened the door for you,” he said. 

“It’s alright,” he moved slowly so the plums wouldn’t fall, “I got it. I found us some pastries that have beef and vegetables in them, if that’s alright, and I also got you some plums.”

Warriors blinked at him in surprise, like he was surprised that War thought to get him something other than dinner. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Are you feeling a little better?” War asked as he set everything down on the bed so he could dig into the bag and get the other hero his food. 

“Not as tired now,” he answered. “I don’t think there’s a physical reason for it. I think I’m just emotionally worn out. I’ve been thinking about things I haven’t thought about in a long time. I haven’t thought about my aunt in five years before this and I haven’t really thought about my parents in maybe a decade and a half? It was long before the war, at any rate.” 

“Ah.” War passed him a pastry as he sat down on the mattress. He knew some of that thinking had to have been caused by his questions over the past week, if not all of it. He should’ve realized by now that Warriors didn’t like talking about his family, and he’d been so focused on coming up with believable half truths to tell Karla that he hadn’t stopped to think about how claiming that their parents had taught them to fight might make his friend feel.

“I got busy thinking of other things. It wasn’t long after I enlisted that the war started so I didn’t have time to think about my parents or my aunt. The only people who think about family during a war are people who have family waiting for them. After the war, it was and still is the vampirism, and now we’re chasing a shadow with a bunch of other heroes. Maybe it’s only affecting me now because I didn’t think about any of it before…” Warriors mumbled.

“It is hard to think about other things in the middle of war, and with other things going on,” he said quietly. He’d had his own issues with procrastinating his own thoughts just for them to overwhelm him later. “Was there something particular about this morning that bothered you?”

“It was when Karla said that our parents sound like smart people,” he said slowly, taking a bite out of his pastry. “I don’t know if they were smart or not. I don’t know much about them at all and I don’t really remember them either. I was just a small kid when I moved in with my aunt. I am sure they would have wanted me to be safe, and I’m sure my aunt was the best option there was, but it’s not like I know that for sure. I just have to guess.”

“It’s hard missing someone you never really knew, or I guess someone you don’t have many memories of,” War spoke softly, grabbing one of the pastries for himself. “I know our situations aren’t the same but I do understand what that feeling is like, losing a parent when you’re that young.”

Warriors frowned at him, then ate more of his pastry. “Your father?” he asked quietly when he was done. 

“Yeah,” he nodded, taking a small bite of food before continuing. “My Ma never talked about him much, I think it was really hard for her to, and I only really have a couple memories of him. It’s… They feel more like strong feelings than real memories, mostly, but that’s all I really have for what I know about him.”

War offered the other hero the bag that held the other two pastries, in case he was still hungry.

Warriors took another pastry. “That’s all I have too. I can’t really remember what they looked like but I do remember being happy with them. I think I would like to know more about them but I honestly don’t know if I have family other than my aunt and my cousins, and they were born after I moved in.” 

“Have you tried maybe looking at records?” he suggested. “Like, the ones that should have people’s full names as well as their relations and age and all that stuff. If you know where your parents lived you might be able to look for them and find other people from your family, if that was something you wanted to do.”

“I never thought to use the fact that I live at the castle to go look at records like that,” Warriors mumbled, chewing his lips in thought. “Like, isn’t that a whole job at the castle? Like the royal archive keeper? I’m sure there is somebody there who is familiar with them at least.” 

“There should definitely be someone there to help you find the records,” War nodded, taking another bite of his pastry. “If you want to look for them, you won’t have to do it alone.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start if I tried to do it alone. Finding these records would be half the battle,” Warriors said. “It would kill some time though. I think even the vampires have a library, I just never went there.” 

“I really like the castle library, it’s a good place to just sit and think.” He’d spent so much time in there at one point that Zelda went straight there to check for him and didn’t bother coming to his rooms. “I’d never really seen that many books in one spot until I accidentally wandered in there one day-”

“Since you seem to like books so much, have you gone to libraries in other eras?” Warriors asked, taking a bite out of his pastry. 

“I have!” War smiled. “I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the others’ languages were written, since the characters can be slightly different with their Common depending on the era and I made some keys in my journal in case I ever forgot or got messed up. There’s been some books in the library back home that I couldn’t read because I couldn’t understand them, and it was making me upset because over the past six or so years I’ve been making a real effort to try to learn more languages so I can read more of the kingdom’s history and more about our neighbors as well but there was always someone to help me learn to read those and figure them out. But there was one damn book I couldn’t figure out and it was pissing me off because the characters were like nothing I’d ever seen before and I was having trouble figuring out which way the lines were even meant to be read and then I was exploring the surface towns Sky and his people have been building and I stumbled upon some of their books and I almost screamed when I recognized the letters. Apparently Sky could read them! They’re not the characters his Common uses now, but he’s just as insane as I am and he learned how to read the older script.”

“Did you ever drag him to the library to read that book for you?” he asked with a tilt of his head. 

“We haven’t been back to my era since I realized he could read it…” War grumbled, scowling down at his pastry. “But I did also have him help me write a basic character key down, though I’m not so confident in my ability to use it on my own. Interestingly enough, it’s not just another alphabet but an entirely different, like… structure of Common that’s almost completely disappeared, apart from the one book my era has for some reason. You can trace a lot of how our language has evolved over the centuries because it does evolve, like sometimes languages become influenced by others, but that one is so weird because the structure and way it’s written don’t work the same as the written Common Sky grew up using. The spoken language, however, is similar enough that it sounds more like a different dialect than a completely different language. Even though our alphabets may look different from, say, Sky’s, you would still read the sentences the same way. Of course the language sounds old because it is, because Skyloft is old, but it still mostly functions in the same way. That Common doesn’t. All the words are pronounced mostly the same way, it’s just written so differently.”

“So it’s kind of a dead end?” Warriors asked with a slight frown. 

“Yeah! It’s almost as if the written language was just completely reinvented one day,” he nodded. “Sky has his theories that it might’ve happened when the people were moved from the surface up to Skyloft and I guess that could make sense.”

Warriors tilted his head slightly, rolling his eyes up slightly as he thought. “Oh yeah, if it’s pronounced the same, then that would make sense. Like, they lost the script but it stayed alive verbally until a new script was developed.” 

“It’s the only thing I can really think of,” he sighed. “I’m dying to know what’s in that book back in my era, for some reason the kingdom’s history wasn’t very accurately documented which is why I’ve been trying so hard to learn from other eras and that book… Even if it doesn’t have ancient records or anything it’ll still tell me something.”

“It might be something that everybody finds boring… like tax records. I’m sure something like that is still important but it’s not going to capture the hearts of the population,” he said with a shrug as he ate more of the pastry. 

“Oh I’m sure, even if there were something interesting in it there will be people who just don’t care. There are also a good number of historians in Castletown who are incredibly sick of me and my rambling and they’re not going to appreciate having to look at me again when I have more things to tell them.” War let out a huff. “They don’t appreciate it very much when I correct them, or tell them things they didn’t know, and they’re going to hate it if I can figure out a way to read that book.”

“So the nobles hate you and so do the historians,” Warriors mumbled, his eyes suddenly yellow and red, and War wondered if his friend was aware of it. “They don’t have to take it so personally and you have the lived experience of actually being in other eras.” 

“I think in general most people find me incredibly irritating,” he tried to joke, though it really did seem that way sometimes. The noblemen hated him because he was so different from them, he knew that was the real reason and not only because some of them still blamed him for the war, and it made sense that some of the historians got upset with him because people who are used to having other people just believe whatever words come out of their mouths don’t appreciate being corrected. It didn’t matter how much evidence he brought to the table, they were just irritated by him because they didn’t like being wrong. Though War had always wondered if maybe he was just insufferable because even as a kid he’d had a grouchy older neighbor who would get annoyed with him over little things. 

“I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with them. If I’m ever in your era, I will bite them for you,” Warriors said plainly, finishing off his pastry once he was done talking. 

“Some of them definitely deserve it. Is it just my era where the noblemen are pretty much all the most insufferable, selfish group of men you’ve ever met in your life or are they like that for you as well?” War sighed, realizing he’d been spending much more time talking than eating.

He shrugged. “Mine suck too because of their priorities but they tend to give me some space. I don’t know if they can feel something subtle from my vampirism or not but since I got cursed, they’ve become a lot less… upfront about being rude.” 

“Huh… For me they’ve just gotten better at making the things that come out of their mouths seem nicer even though they’re definitely getting worse,” he grumbled. “Like their tone is better controlled.” 

War took a bit of his food and tried to stop himself from going down that path of thought. He’d actually been feeling pretty decent this evening and everyone they’d run into during their time together had been pretty kind to them, almost unusually so. He should spend more time focusing on that instead of the people who he one day wouldn’t be able to avoid because he’d be back in his era for good.

“Is it easier to eat with the fangs?” War asked his friend, wanting to change the topic and wondering if the other hero knew they were out. 

Warriors blinked at him like he grew a second head, then ran his tongue over his fangs. “Fuck! It happened again,” he growled as he retracted his fangs. “I swear that they have a mind of their own sometimes. They haven’t been out long, have they?” 

“No, just a few minutes,” he told him with a confused frown. “…Do you not like having them out?”

“Not without me knowing! What if a civilian sees them? I don’t mind you seeing them but I’m trying to keep a secret. The fact that I don’t notice them sometimes means that the secret isn’t safe and then the two vampires that only tolerate me would definitely make me regret blowing the secret,” Warriors said quickly, though his voice was quieter. “Besides, what if people see them and freak out?” 

“I’m sure if it’s ever a small slip up you’d be able to retract them before anyone could notice,” War told him softly, hoping he didn’t come off as dismissive. He could see how that would be incredibly stressful for the other hero, not knowing if his eyes were showing either, and how it could land him in a dangerous situation, but he’d really only noticed himself because he was sitting so close to his friend. If people were unaware vampires existed, with how blue Warriors’s eyes were, the other hero might genuinely be able to argue that they were just really reflecting the light if he was ever accused of them looking weird and he could probably lie and say there was something in his mouth if his fangs were noticed. There are just some people who aren’t very perceptive, but even so, that didn’t completely eliminate the risk. And if Warriors ever found himself in that situation there was no guarantee he wouldn’t be too stressed to lie his way out.

“Do you actually think that would work? The eyes are pretty noticeable.” He didn’t sound particularly upset but he was still quieter than usual. 

“Your eyes are incredibly blue and they’re light enough that if you were standing close to a light source or something that could be enough to make them look a different color because of the reflection,” War told him. “You could probably get away with using that as an excuse, if anyone even questioned it in the first place because most people tend to assume they saw something incorrectly as opposed to throwing out accusations immediately.”

“I suppose that’s true. Maybe I’m just overestimating people. I used to be very aware of whether or not my fangs were out but that was before I met my brothers and got pretty comfortable with them. Sometimes they have to remind me,” Warriors grumbled, though he made it sound like he was just annoyed rather than truly upset. 

“It’s good they’ve got your back like that,” he offered his friend a small smile, “and I got you too. If we’re ever out walking and I notice them I’ll let you know.”

Warriors’ cheeks and the tips of his ears turned pink. “Thanks,” he said quietly. “It seems to happen the most when I wake up. Sometimes they come out when I’m sleeping, I guess maybe because of a dream or something. I’m actually surprised they didn’t come out at all when I slept for like a day and a half.” 

“Oh really?” War asked, giving the other hero the opportunity to talk more about that if he wanted to, and he tried to focus on finishing his dinner.

He shrugged. “The other time I slept for that long was because I used my vampire powers and focus spirit at the same time. I was just really exhausted. I think that’s what happened here too - there was the head injury, the venom, the deviated septum, and bruised or cracked ribs. All at the same time. I’ve had my fangs come out while I was sleeping when I had a lot less going on. Sometimes I go to bed feeling perfectly fine and then I wake up with fangs.” 

“Do you feel better by the way?” War turned off topic for a quick moment. “Like, in terms of all the injuries you’ve recovered from, are you feeling alright?”

Warriors nodded eagerly. “I felt pretty good when we left the last village. I didn’t have any injuries when we left. I think sleeping for a day and a half really helped, even though it was very surprising to learn that I slept that long.” 

“You clearly really needed it,” he shrugged. “I’m glad you’re feeling alright, I know we’re used to getting a little beat up but it’s also important to make sure we actually heal.”

“I think I only had the deviated septum when we found those skulltulas but falling did a lot of damage,” he said with a frown. “I usually have one big injury. I don’t think any of them would have made me sleep so long on their own, but together…”

“Even I would probably be down longer if I were healing from several injuries as opposed to just one,” War told him, grabbing the bag on the bed between them so he could get his other pastry. “That’s kinda just how bodies work, and it seems like sleeping for you is really important for healing so that makes sense to me. I was a little worried when you didn’t wake up but you were alive, breathing well, and you seemed fine so I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Sorry. I didn’t even mean to sleep for that long, let alone make you worry about it.” The frown was still on his face but there was something else that he couldn’t quite place. “Do you have any theories about why I need more sleep? My vampire mentor said it must have something to do with the fact that I’m half vampire but she didn’t say why that could be the case.” 

“I don’t know much about vampires but I do think you being a younger vampire could have something to do with it.” Young hylians slept an awful lot too, so that matched up logically in his brain. “I think it could also be because we live such an active lifestyle? I’m not so sure about how things are going with your friends but with mine I feel like we’re always running around and getting ready to fight something and it’s frankly exhausting. It could also just be a you thing, like Four can sleep for sixteen hours straight if we let him and that’s just him, or something else, like Sky has to take a herb blend twice a day and it makes him even more tired than he would be otherwise.”

“I don’t need to take anything like your Sky does. I guess you could technically count blood, but to me, it’s food. We are pretty active though. We’re usually on the move, unless I’m sleeping or somebody is sick or injured.” 

He nodded slowly as he took a large bite from his second pastry. Maybe it’d just been a while since he’d had anything similar, but they were really good and he’d quite enjoyed the first one even if he’d been so distracted rambling that he hadn’t been paying much attention to the flavor.

“Do you want to get out of the inn after you’re done eating? I know we should probably be a little frugal but it would be nice if we could find another bathhouse,” Warriors suggested with a shrug. “And I promise I won’t break my nose this time.” 

War let out a small laugh before he could stop himself. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

He quickly finished up his dinner as Warriors took the plums he’d given him and packed them away for later, and then he reorganized his things a little to make sure he had everything he’d need. Triple checking to make sure he really did have his wallet, War checked with the other hero to see if he was also ready to head out before he opened their door and made his way towards the stairs.

It turned out that there was a bathhouse after all. It wasn’t hard for them to find since they got directions from the innkeepers, but it was more tucked away than the other one was. It was situated on a side road and it blended in with all the homes around it at first until they found the sign that indicated it was a business. 

The rules were largely the same as the other one they went to but Warriors was surprised to find that it didn’t actually have a communal bath. It had a lot of smaller private rooms that were meant for a small group at most. It was also cheaper than the other one - they could rent a whole room with supplies for a hundred rupees, but if they did bring their own shampoos and conditioners, it would have been cheaper. War seemed happy to pay, so Warriors signed in and got their key. 

Warriors was the first to change and grab his robe and once again, he was the first in the tub with his robe turned pillow tucked behind his head. He settled his head against it and closed his eyes. The water felt fucking magical and a bathhouse was one of the only ways he got to truly enjoy a bath. If they had to bathe outside, he usually had to wait until night when the water wasn’t quite as warm and he didn’t get as much time as he wanted to wash his hair and just enjoy soaking. 

He heard War step into the tub and let out a relaxed sigh, but Warriors didn’t lift his head. 

“Still nice even though we’re in a warmer place,” Warriors mumbled. “Don’t let me fall asleep though, otherwise I won’t have time for my hair.” It wasn’t like he needed a lot of time for his hair - it was wavy but still short enough where it didn’t need much outside of a quality shampoo and conditioner - but he still needed to clean up. He still felt like he was kind of dirty from falling out of the trees. 

“Okay,” War’s response sounded like he too was half awake. “Gods, do you think we’ll get somewhere that’s actually warm and not just not cold as fuck? It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been in an era and a part of the kingdom where it’s like… summer.”

“It’s not that cold anymore,” Warriors mumbled. “It’s not exactly warm but I wouldn’t say it’s cold either. Maybe just a little chilly.” 

“It’s cold to me,” the other hero whined. “I keep thinking to myself that after so many years of experiencing freezing cold winters maybe I’ll get used to it but no!”

Warriors couldn’t help but to laugh. He understood where War was coming from but for some reason, he found his whining kind of funny. “Sorry, I know you hate it but I… admire your passion for your hatred,” he said once he found the right word for it. “How warm is your home town that this is cold to you?”  

“I mean it's like… Like the summers in Castletown are around how home is when it’s like… autumn,” War grumbled. “Though the last few years Castletown has gotten quite hot, but still not as warm as my village does.”

“Like, when you’re in bed all day with the fire going? No, I guess that’s more of a winter thing, isn’t it? I always have the fire going when the leaves change colour just because it feels more comfortable, even if I don’t really need to warm up. It still feels nice to be in bed when the fire is going.” Warriors supposed it just reminded him of safety. He could remember spending his autumn nights in front of the fireplace when he was a kid and it also reminded him of the ranch. 

“I used to think winters back home were cold until I fucking left…” War sighed. “I guess they’d be comparable to like… maybe spring or early summer in Castletown?? I’ve since learned that winters can be much, much worse. I spend as much time near the fire as I can when it’s cold out, it feels nice and I like the sound of it. It’s relaxing.”

“Are you saying your winter was the kind of temperature where you just need to wear long sleeves or something?” Warriors could now better appreciate why War hated the snow so much though. If he thought that was bad, then snow would definitely be a shock. 

“I mean I used to be sitting there in multiple layers, but yeah I guess at it’s coldest it was just the temperature where you’d start to consider wearing something a little warmer,” the other hero huffed. “Twilight would argue with me if he were here and say that’s still sleeveless top weather because for some reason he’s always hot, it’ll be freezing out and he’ll somehow be too hot and complaining about it.”

“Like, your definition of freezing or is everybody except for Twilight cold too?” he asked. Warriors had some resistance to the cold but he wondered how he matched up to War’s Twilight. His Twilight ran warm too but he never complained that it was too hot. 

“Well… A bit of both?” War said slowly. “Wind and I tend to be the ones who feel cold first, and by the time I personally consider it freezing then Four, Hyrule, and Legend have made some comment about it being a little ‘chilly’. But Twilight is also the last one of us to ever complain about it being too cold, we’ve found ourselves trapped on a mountain before and my fingers were literally turning colors they shouldn’t have been and Twilight was genuinely comfortable in just his tunic. He’d given me his pelt because I’d reached a point where I’d gotten so cold I stopped shivering-”

Warriors lifted his head off of his robes, staring at War with raised eyebrows. “Seriously?” he asked with his mouth hanging open slightly. “Does it have something to do with the necklace or is there something else?” 

“I thought it might be that at first, but I genuinely think it’s just Twilight,” War shook his head. He looked much more relaxed than he had the last time they’d gone to a bathhouse, he didn’t have that look on his face like he was going to explode if Warriors looked in his general direction for too long. “And he doesn’t come from some village in like, the mountains or somewhere freezing cold or something! Ordon is definitely on the warmer side of places we’ve visited so it’s not like he’s super used to freezing weather! He just isn’t really that bothered by the cold unless it’s extreme.”

“Ordon is definitely warmer than this place. My Twilight runs a little warm but your Twilight seems ridiculous,” Warriors mumbled. He wondered if there was something about his own chain that made them possibly stranger than War’s but he couldn’t immediately come up with anything. He was probably stranger than War, thanks to his curse, but that was about it. Though, War did seem quite comfortable with that other name he used in front of Karla. “Wait, I just remembered something. Is Link not your name?” 

“Oh, yeah, it’s not,” the other hero said, sinking a little further into the water.

“Where did the name Link come from?” he asked with a confused frown. He wasn’t exactly surprised that there was a hero who had a name other than Link for some reason but it was odd that he picked it up later. “If I remember that first night on the mountain right, you still go by Link, no?”

“Technically it comes from my father,” War told him quietly, “but it’s also just like… What do you call it, a second name?? Is that right?? It’s part of my full name, just not what I was called by my family growing up. Or, well, they still call me ‘Eleno’, and so do a few other people. People in Castletown and the army do call me ‘Link’, though, so I do go by that more now.”

“You mean a middle name? Like your name is Eleno Link… whatever your family name is?” 

“It’s not really a ‘middle’ name because it’s not really in the middle…? But I guess that’s the word I was looking for,” the other hero shrugged. “I have both my mother and father’s family names as part of my full one, though when I was drafted I ended up shortening my name and then taking my paternal grandmother’s family name, because that’s what my father had done when he was in the army and having that family connection was very helpful. And they like me so I count it as a win, they were very welcoming when I showed up in the military.”

“Helpful in what way?” Nobody seemed to care much for his last name even if it had quite a few syllables like noble names did. Nobody even batted an eye at his first name until they noticed he caught onto swordplay quickly, though he was sure that nobody thought he was the hero at that point. 

“Well, the current Lord Barclay is a baron and I was quite lost and overwhelmed when I found myself in Castletown, especially because I barely knew anyone. There were only a few other boys from my village who I was able to keep in contact with until we all got separated when the war broke out, so apart from occasionally seeing their friendly faces I was alone. But claiming relation to a nobleman does tend to draw the attention of certain people when you come from an incredibly small village in the very far south, and once it was determined that I was not lying, I was just a somewhat distant relative, Lord Barclay did his best to help me where he could. He’s my second cousin and he’s a good few years older than I am, and he supported me when the war started and everyone was initially debating if I should be tossed over to the sorceress or if we should keep fighting to win the war,” he let out a small sigh before continuing. “We’re not exactly close, our first several conversations were difficult because my Common wasn’t very good but it’s easier to talk with him now and I’m grateful he’s had my back all these years.”

Eleno or Link Barclay. He wasn’t sure if there was a Lord Barclay in his era since he didn’t make it a habit of memorizing the names of people he found annoying and didn’t see very often, but it would be a start to see if he could find the non-hero version of War in his era. It wouldn’t be the same as having War around but he was still curious to see what the non-hero version of his new friend would be up to if he did exist. 

“I’m glad you had somebody like that,” Warriors said quietly. “And since you’ve shared so much about your name, mine is Link Alexander. No middle name but my aunt didn’t give any to her children either, so maybe it’s just something my family decided not to do.” 

“I think most of my friends don’t have second names either,” War shrugged. “Mask technically is just ‘Link’. I- I don’t actually know if he has a surname right now- All his letters from Malon are just addressed to ‘Link’.”

“Did he marry her in your era? I wouldn’t be surprised if the crown gave him Malon’s last name in their records if he did, but I can see him knowing the crown did that and just not using it anyway,” Warriors said as he started getting out of the tub to see what sort of supplies were available. 

“He did marry her, yeah.” The other hero let out an irritated grumbling sound as he pulled himself out of the warm water. 

Warriors walked carefully to the shelf and looked at the products available. He kind of wondered if he should let War pick out what he needed first but he figured that their hair probably had different needs since his hair was only wavy while War’s hair was curly, so they probably didn’t need the same products. Warriors found the same bottles he used the last time he was at the bathhouse and knowing that they worked for him before, decided to grab them. 

There wasn’t anything for a bubble bath, which was a little disappointing. “You find everything you need?” Warriors asked as he watched War study the shelf. 

The other hero narrowed his eyes at one particular bottle before he slowly reached for it, two already tucked in his arm. “Yes, I think so.”

“Do you see anything for a bubble bath? I couldn’t find anything but I might have just missed it. I don’t even see bath salts.” It wouldn’t ruin the bath or anything but the bubble bath was so nice last time. He needed a little bit of whimsy in his life. 

“Uhhhh….” War scanned the shelves, sticking the third bottle he’d grabbed into one of the pockets in the robe he’d thrown on. “Oh! It was tucked behind other things.” He reached behind a group of several tall bottles for a smaller one labeled ‘Bubble Soap’. 

“Well damn, you have a good eye for detail,” Warriors said with a small smile as shuffled the two bottles he had into his right hand so he could take the bottle from War’s hand. He wanted to be the one to pour into the tub, though he didn’t know why he found it fun. He put his shampoo and conditioner down beside his robes, then opened the tall bottle and poured a generous amount into the tub.  Before stepping back into the pool, he stuck his hand inside the water and swished it around until bubbles appeared. Once he was satisfied with the amount of bubbles he got, he capped it and stepped back into the tub.

“I would have been disappointed if we had a regular, not-bubble bath,” Warriors mumbled as War took his robe off and stepped into the tub. “I think I’ve come to like them.” 

“Yeah?” The other hero laughed, giving him a crooked smile. “They are pretty awesome.”

“I haven’t had a lot of bubble baths but I liked the one we had last time,” he answered. He had enough of them to know that motion activated the bubbles but that was about it. “I don’t think I enjoyed them before, but that might just be because I don’t often have the time or the opportunity to enjoy a bath. Especially a warm bath these days.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to find a spot to get a real bath while on the road,” War let out a sigh. “With my friends I feel like we’re lucky if we can find a river or something just so I can have some source of water to get the blood stains and dirt off my skin, and it was like that during the war too.”

“It’s the same with us. Sometimes when we do have a water source, it isn’t really big enough or deep enough to, you know, really sit and enjoy a bath. You’re just dumping cold water on yourself. It’s not fun. We always did what we had to with the water source we had… I miss them a lot.” 

“Warm baths? Or your friends?” War asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“My friends. The bathes too, but mostly my friends,” he said with a frown. He was making progress with War but it felt like there were forces trying to keep them from reaching Lana. “I know we’re getting closer but there have been so many obstacles.” 

“Yeah…” War said quietly, looking down at all the bubbles. “You haven’t seen them in quite a while, right? I think you told me?”

“It’s been a month and probably a week now,” he answered. They didn’t know he was alright either. They were out there worrying about him and he was having a bubble bath. “But I’m going to miss you too when we both go home. It feels like I can’t really win.” 

The other hero looked somewhere between shocked and touched. “I’m going to miss you a lot too. It’s crazy to think that we’re only here right now, together, because something weird happened.”

“Maybe it’s not out of the question to have Lana do this again but on purpose? If she can do it by accident, maybe she can do it on purpose.” Warriors doubted that she would but he didn’t want to say that it could never happen. It was unlikely but not impossible. 

“She kinda owes me…” War grumbled before he looked up and blinked at him. “If she can do this on purpose then I could probably convince her to.”

“She owes you?” he asked once he dunked his head underwater to get his hair wet. 

“She sure does-” War’s small frown turned into a scowl. “She did something that… Well, really it was the fact that she didn’t do something- Anyway, she felt so horrible she told me she owed me any favor I could ask of her, as long as it’s within her power to make the thing happen. She did also say it has to be within reason but I think that was more to stop me from asking her something that would land her in serious trouble. I think asking to hop to a different era for the afternoon would be fine considering that’s what I’ve been doing for the better part of a year, traveling through time.”

“That’s true. If you did end up coming to my era, there are three vampires who would probably love to answer any question you have. Actually, one of them might end up asking you a bunch of questions. He’s interested in Hyrule and all the heroes. He’s from Labrynna, I think, and he’s a scholar. Hyrule is still new and interesting to him, somehow,” Warriors said with a shrug as poured some shampoo onto his hand to lather into his hair. 

“Oh really?” Whatever anger, or hurt, or frustration that’d taken over the other hero disappeared and he stared at Warriors with a curious expression on his face. “I’ve never been to Labrynna… I’ve heard a little about it and also read a small amount, but I don’t really get to travel outside of Hyrule which is a real shame because there’s so much world to explore. It’d be interesting to talk with other vampires! And also just to see how different your era is from mine.”

“Two of them are from Holodrum, two of them come from Laybrynna, and then Elena, my mentor, was from Hyrule and then she went to Labrynna and came back. All of them have round ears except for Elena…” He paused as he lathered his hair. “Huh, Elena and Eleno. I didn’t fucking realize your names were so similar!” 

“Yeah, they are,” War let out a small laugh before wetting his hair so he could start washing it properly. “Is it just the six of you? Or are there other vampires where you live?”

“Just the six of us in Hyrule. There are more in my era, they just don’t live in Hyrule so I haven’t met them. Most vampires actually avoid Hyrule all together and I think Elena being a Hylian vampire in particular is the only reason why anybody followed her here. She knows all the stories and the legends, so she knows what vampires need to avoid. I’m lucky she was around, otherwise I would have had to deal with the curse on my own,” he said with a frown. He didn’t like to think about where he would be if it wasn’t for Elena and the other vampires teaching him how to blend in. There was a good chance that he wouldn’t be here with War, trying to get back home. 

“Legends and stories?” The other hero asked, working the shampoo through his curls. “Like about the kinds of things that you can do or do the hylians in your era have like… legends about vampires? I saw vampires mentioned in a small book in my Castletown library but I don’t know if it’s common for people to know about them.”

“Well, I meant that she knows about us and our brothers. She knows about the heroes, the princesses, and about the evil we need to banish. She knew what it meant that I was the hero… and also a vampire,” he answered, then dunk his head back into the water to rinse. “She actually threatened me the first time we talked. She basically said that if I wasn’t going to learn how to keep vampires a secret, she was going to kill me, hero or not. Our relationship is pretty good now, though!” 

“O- Oh!” War’s genuine shock caused his voice to sound higher than usual and he stood there for a second frozen, staring at him with wide eyes. 

“Well, she had to make sure there wasn’t an out of control vampire running around. I think even Zelda or Impa would have reached the same decision if I was a danger to people like that,” Warriors said quickly. He hoped he didn’t give War a bad impression of Elena since he would have been truly lost without her. She was the only reason why he got through the war as a vampire. 

“I, um… Well-” The other hero struggled for a moment with what to say, and while he did start moving again, his eyes were still a little too wide as he looked at him. “I’m glad you two are closer now.”

“She’s always offered help when I needed it and asked for it. I wouldn’t have been prepared to defeat Ganondorf without her and I wouldn’t have recovered so well without her and the other vampires shoving blood down my throat when I couldn’t feed myself… I’m not sure if this is helping,” he mumbled under his breath. 

“Helping what?” War asked, rinsing the soap from the ends of his hair.

Oh yeah, he kept forgetting that War’s hearing was actually pretty good. “Well, I don’t want you to have a bad impression of Elena but I think I’m just… overexplaining it,” he said with a frown, his shoulders drooping as he sat awkwardly in the tub.

“If you trust her and you have a good relationship with her, I trust your judgment,” War told him. “She seems important to you, and I’m glad you’ve had her to help you. Truly.”

Warriors let out a relieved sigh and he started to work the conditioner through his hair. “I was surprised too. She didn’t give me a lot of time to let it all sink in before she said that. In hindsight, I think she was justified but I definitely wasn’t happy that she said that. I was kind of a brat back then too, so it’s not like I gave her the best impression of me. We got to talk more when I was recovering.” 

“I can’t even imagine how stressed you were with the war going on and then suddenly finding yourself to be a vampire,” the other hero said with a small frown. “It’s good you were able to talk with her more once you had some time to adjust to everything.”

“At least it was when Cia was already defeated and Ganondorf was just acting in the background. The timing was still bad but it could have been a lot worse. At least I had some time to try and get it under control and figure out how to actually drink blood. Marcus, he’s one of the vampires that only tolerates me, taught how to hunt monsters so that’s how I managed my hunger throughout the war. There’s always monsters around.” 

“Why don’t the other vampires… seem to like you much?” War asked slowly. 

Warriors chewed on his lips as he recalled what Elena said about them. “Elena just thinks it’s because they don’t like the idea of the dynamics of their group changing. They’ve been together in Hyrule for a while, so I’m just a new element that they don’t know how to deal with. I don’t think they actually hate me or anything but they’re not in a hurry to learn more about me… and I guess that’s fine. We have decades to learn about each other.”

“Ah… That makes sense, I guess,” he said quietly, pouring more shampoo into his hand so he could soap up his hair again. “I remember being irritated when my youngest sister was born, because I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the fact there was another one of us. But we got closer as we got older, so maybe the same will be true for you too.”

“Hopefully. I figured out that Marcus just really likes to spar with people and I feel like we got a little closer when he was helping me get back into shape after I recovered from all of those burns. I don’t really have a good read on the last one though,” he mumbled. Luckily, he could probably ask the others what  she was interested in but when he was at the point in his life where the estate was the only place he had left, he could at least get closer to Marcus. 

“You were able to stay with them while you healed?”

He nodded. “My brothers found the portal that the shadow left behind when it was fleeing from the light spirit. That portal took them to my era and close enough to Elena’s manor. I don’t know how they found the vampires or if the vampires found them first, but I have my own room there so I could stay until I recovered. I think I told you before that it took me a month to heal from those burns and my brothers couldn’t stay the whole time but that's only because the vampires found a portal.”

“Yeah, you did mention that,” War said with a concerned frown before taking a moment to rinse all the soap from his hair. “I’m glad you had a place to stay with them, that’s insanely lucky that you were able to go there.”

“Legend said something about the shadow not being able to think straight after the spirit retaliated. I haven’t told you about the burns right?” He rinsed the conditioner out of his hair but sighed when he realized he forgot to grab something to actually scrub himself with. He would go back for that in a moment. He just wanted to soak and enjoy the warm water a little longer. 

“You’d said something about not being able to see?” The other hero reached for the ledge for another bottle, probably conditioner, before pouring some in his hand and running it through his hair. “And you’d said that you were pushed.”

“I was blind because the water burned my eyes. I also lost the tip of my ears, parts of my nose, had holes burned through my cheeks, my fingers were burned down to the bone, and the rest of my body had second and third degree burns. I also swallowed some of the water when I was struggling to find my way out, so some of my internal organs were damaged too. I think only my feet somehow ended up being relatively alright. If I recall correctly, they only had first degree burns.” He swallowed harshly when he realized just how many details he gave out. Warriors wasn’t bothered by the fact that War would know but he did worry that it might have been more than War would have liked to hear. “But as I can see, I’m fine now.” 

War was staring at him with his mouth open in shock, eyes wide as he took a minute to process what he’d just heard. He decided to just let War think while he got out of the tub and went back to the supplies with the shampoo and conditioner in hand. He was done with those, so he might as well put them back. He took longer than he actually needed to pick out something for his skin and a rag to scrub himself with before he returned to the tub and stepped inside. 

“I… I can’t even begin to imagine how much pain you must’ve been in, I’m so sorry,” the other hero whispered, looking only slightly less horrified than he had when Warriors left him.

“I wasn’t really conscious for a lot of that. The vampires woke me up a few times a day to drink a little bit of blood but I can’t remember much until I started feeling well enough to try and talk. I think they debrided the burns to remove all the charred flesh and Hyrule also used his magic when he could. Proxi was there too, she was able to interpret for me,” he said with a small smile. “She never left the room.” 

“Yeah?” War’s face finally started to relax. “She must’ve been worried, though I bet still somewhat happy to see you.”

“I think she would have preferred to see me in a better condition but I’m glad she came anyway. She came from the castle just for me when she heard I was in bad shape and she definitely made things a lot less lonely. My sight was the last thing to come back, so she was also my eyes for a bit there,” he said as he put some of the liquid soap on the rag and started to scrub his body down. “I had the others and the vampires too but Proxi knew me the longest.” 

“How’d she first find you?” War asked, still messing with whatever product was in his hair. “Like… How did you meet her, I guess?”

“On the battlefield near the castle. I was still just a trainee but I decided to go out and fight anyway when I heard that we were under attack. I saved her from some monsters. We’ve been together since the first day of the war. This adventure with the shadow has kept us separated unless we end up near the castle for a visit but I always visit when I can. I don’t know where I would be without her,” he explained as he finished washing himself. He once again settled for just existing in the tub with his head on the robes. 

“Me neither,” War let out a small sigh. “She’s a very dear friend.”

“Did you meet in a similar manner?” Warriors asked. 

“I first met her a bit before the war started,” the other hero shook his head. “I spent a lot of time by myself when I was first drafted, I couldn’t really understand what people were saying so whenever we had ‘free time’ before we were meant to sleep, I’d just wander because it wasn’t like I could talk with anyone. And I think I had some blueberries on me or something and she just came up to me and I offered her one and it turned out she could understand me, which was a surprise, and she talked with me for a little. She didn’t stick around much initially, not till I saved her from some monsters on the day the war started, like you did. But after that she stuck with me, and because it became more necessary for me to interact with other people because of the whole hero shit, she helped translate things for me and spoke for me until I could handle it myself.”

“Proxi had to speak for me too but that was because I didn’t have the confidence to speak for myself during the war. I went from trainee to captain as soon as it was confirmed that I was the hero and I was really scared of saying the wrong thing. I found it difficult to speak at all until I got more experience. Proxi had to speak for me during all those times,” he explained quietly. It wasn’t the easiest thing for him to admit but he figured if there was anybody who could understand, it would be War. He knew that the others had periods of silence in their lives too but War was the one who understood what it was like to be a captain during an ugly war and who understood the pressure of being the object of desire during said war. 

“I struggle a bit with that too,” War admitted. “It’s easier to speak around people I don’t feel like I have to impress, or be perfect in front of. Though I’ve had moments where I get so overwhelmed I feel like I’m being choked and I just can’t get any words to come out, to anyone.”

“Is that what happened in the forest when I lost my arm?” he asked quietly. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” 

“Mhm,” War nodded, rinsing his hair before just leaning back for a moment. “Or at least it was certainly starting to get to that point. I could still force myself to say something, it was hard but I could speak with you. There was just a lot going on in my head all at once and it was hard to not feel like I was drowning in all of it- But definitely nowhere close to the worst the feeling something out of my control is stopping me from speaking has ever been.”

Warriors frowned but since he was facing the ceiling, War wouldn’t be able to see it. “If that wasn’t the worst, I would hate to see what the worst was. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing when you were panicking but I guess I haven't been easy for you to handle all the time either.” 

“Eleven days, not a single word, and when I finally could force myself to say something my voice sounded absolutely horrible and I kept losing it. That would’ve been the worst,” the other hero mumbled, letting out a deep sigh before continuing. “You did more than enough, sometimes I really do just need to stop and calm down for a moment. It sounds fucking stupid but I do forget how breathing works sometimes…”

Even though he was curious, he didn’t think it was a good thing to pry. He couldn’t imagine what could put his friend into a state like that and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. He lifted his head up and looked at War. “I’m glad it helped then. I was scared of making things worse. It’s been a long time since I had to walk somebody through a breathing exercise and I was the one who made things worse to begin with.”  

“Oh?” War asked, rubbing at his collarbone before moving his hand to fiddle with the ring around his neck instead.

“Well, you know. I said things that didn’t need to be said when I knew you were doing so great. I should kept my fucking mouth shut but I kept pushing anyway. I knew I fucked up but I didn’t stop…” 

“Your arm had just got cut off,” the other hero frowned, “it’s understandable that you were frustrated.”

“Being frustrated didn’t help,” he mumbled. Why did he even bring it up again? Warriors was just going to feel bad that he snapped and War was going to be nice and understanding even though he didn’t deserve it. “I appreciate that you’re so kind to me but… I don’t deserve it. At least not for that.” 

“I don’t understand,” War stared at him, looking genuinely confused. “Why would I be unkind to you over that?”

“I don’t think unkind is the right word,” he said, looking into the bubbles instead. “I wasn’t kind to you. I feel like if somebody pushed me into a panic attack, I would forgive them, but I would still be upset that it happened. I’m still not happy that Twilight scared me. I’m not mean to him about it but like… I’m not exactly nice about it either. I guess I can’t understand why you would be nice to me for doing that.” 

“Link, I was so overwhelmed the panic attack was going to happen anyway,” War told him gently. “That’s not your fault at all, I freaked myself out because I let that darknut sneak up on me and then I got stressed because it felt like everything was spiraling out of my control. And I was still struggling to adjust to being here, with you, without most of my things or anything familiar at all, and it all just kind of hit me at once. I was a bit hurt by what you said, sure, but I don’t think you said it with the intention to be cruel or something, so why would I hold it against you?”

Warriors bit his lips with fangs that he didn’t realize came out, but he still bit his lips even as the fangs scratched them. “I… guess I don’t know…” he said quietly. “It just feels like you should.” 

“I don’t,” the other hero shook his head. “I don’t hold it against you. I never did, it’s okay.”

He dug his fangs into his lips and just sat there. It was difficult for him to let it all go but if War forgave him and didn’t hold it against him, then he shouldn’t hold it against himself either. He knew he shouldn’t but Warriors found it difficult to just forgive himself for it too. It was just easier to continue to beat himself up over it. 

“Truly?” he asked once he was able to dislodge his fangs from his lips. They bled a little but Warriors just ran his tongue over his lips so the blood wouldn’t drip onto his chin. 

“Truly. I’m not upset with you, I promise.” 

Warriors resisted the urge to bite and chew his lips again, so he retracted his fangs. Instead, he settled for breathing in and out until he was calm enough to shove all of the emotions he didn’t want to deal with away. He even shook his head, like that would help shake them out of his mind. He stayed quiet as he finished cleaning and he ran his hand through his hair again to see how it felt. 

“Thanks, War,” he said quietly. Warriors wasn’t quite sure what else to say though. The only thing he was sure of was that he was feeling pretty tired again. 

“Of course,” War gave him a small smile.

“I’m really tired again though. I feel a little lighter but…” Emotions were exhausting. Warriors didn’t say the last part out loud and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to, even though he was sure that War would understand. He shook his head again. “Are you nearly done?” 

“Yeah, I can hurry up,” the other hero told him. 

Warriors waved his hand and leaned his head back on his robe pillow. “You don’t need to rush, I don’t mind soaking for a while longer.”

“Oh, alright.” He heard War move to get out of the water, wrapping his robe around himself before walking right past him. Warriors closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. He didn’t realize he drifted off to sleep until War was calling his name. When he cracked his eyes open and rolled his head to face him, he found War sitting beside him with his legs in the water. “Ready?”

“Huh?” Warriors groaned as he lifted his head off his robe pillow and straightened himself out a bit. “How long has it been?” 

“Like… Ten, fifteen minutes?” He guessed. “Not that long.”

Fuck, he knew he was tired but he didn’t expect to drift off so quickly. He stretched and slowly stepped out of the tub, putting his robe on as he did so. He looked down, expecting to find the soap and the rag he used but apparently War already cleaned up for him and he didn’t notice.

 “I’m ready,” he said as very slowly and very carefully made his way to the changing room. He let out a sigh of relief when he made it onto flooring that he was sure he wouldn’t slip on. “Look at that. An incident free day at the bathhouse.” 

“Well, don’t say that,” War laughed as he followed after him, “we haven’t left yet. Don’t curse us.”

Warriors frowned at him and then quickly changed back into his clothing. What if he did just curse them? He knew how their luck worked. He knew it swung between completely awful and amazing and so far, it seemed to be on the amazing side. Maybe he just encouraged it to swing towards awful again.

“Let’s get out of here,” he mumbled. 

“You feeling alright?” War asked, double checking to make sure he had everything he’d walked in with before looking at him with poorly masked concern. 

Warriors bit his lips, trying to figure out how much he wanted to tell War. He already knew that he was bothered when War tried to say he was fine when he wasn’t. He would be fucking hypocrite if he wasn’t honest to War after all of that.  "I'm still bothered by our earlier conversation. I just need some time, I think.” 

“Oh, alright,” he said quietly, grabbing the door and pulling it open for him once they were ready to leave.

He hoped that War wasn’t too upset with him as he exited their room and signed them out in the book. When they left the bathhouse and walked back to the inn, Warriors could kind of understand why War was whining about the cold now. He didn’t think it was really cold out when they walked to the bathhouse but after leaving the nice, warm bathhouse with damp hair, he thought it was kind of cold. 

“I think I’m just going to go to bed once we get back. It’ll mess up my hair but I’m just tired right now.” 

“Do you want to sleep in tomorrow?” War asked. He had his arms wrapped tightly around his middle as he fought against shivering.

“If it’s alright. I don’t want to hold us up though.” 

“Take as much time as you need,” he told him, trying to walk a little faster to reach the inn sooner.

“I guess I will then,” he answered as he sped up to match War’s pace. It didn’t take long for them to reach the inn at that rate and once Warriors got all his extra layers off, he claimed his side of the bed. He bid Warriors a good night and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

War reached into his pouch that kept his snacks with a small sigh, staring ahead at the fields of grass as they made their way further south. They’d had a bit of a late start, Warriors hadn’t woken up until around two in the afternoon, but even though he preferred to get moving earlier in the day, War really didn’t mind all that much. The other hero seemed like he needed the sleep and with War having decided to let him wake up on his own time, he’d found himself with a decent amount of time to knit that morning and he’d had more than enough time to make himself look presentable and fuss over his hair.

He’d almost forgotten how genuinely good his curls could look when he used the right products and it’d been a rather nice surprise when he was able to get his hair to look decent. Or maybe it was just that days and days of it looking like a horrid frizzy mess had given him a new appreciation for an average hair day. Either way, it didn’t matter, because for once he was satisfied with his appearance even without the ability to do his usual routine, and he was desperately clinging to the idea that if he started out his day being positive and not hating himself, maybe the rest of the day would stay nice and not horrible too.

It’d certainly been working a little bit, they hadn’t run into any trouble yet and while he’d been worried he’d said something that upset Warriors last night, his friend seemed normal now. He’d been a little grumpy when he’d woken up but War wasn’t too surprised by that, and after he’d gotten a chance to feel more awake and move around a little bit he’d seemed fine. 

“Sorry for waking up so late,” Warriors mumbled. “Did you find something to entertain yourself with, at least?”  

War blinked hard as he was pulled from his thoughts. “No need to apologize, I’m glad you were able to get enough sleep. And yeah, I did, I walked around town a little and then came back and did some knitting.”

“You did that the last time I overslept too. I only know how to sew though,” he said, tilting his head. “Do you find it fun?” 

“I do!” War nodded. “It used to stress me out because I struggled to figure it out when I was first learning but I can kinda do it mindlessly now. It’s nice to just have something to do that feels productive, and I can do whatever I want with it.”

“What do you make? I think you once said something about making your cats sweaters because they’re na- hairless.”

“I’ll be so honest, mostly the sweaters,” he laughed, grabbing more cashews from his belt. “I did make a very fucked up looking blanket once. I got a little too ambitious and thought I could handle such a large project when I hadn’t been able to knit in years and had half forgotten how, and gods above it looks a bit strange but the cats like to sleep on it so I’ve kept it on the end of my bed for a few years now.”

“Are you still knitting their sweaters even now?” Warriors asked, sounding rather surprised for some reason. “Did you happen to have all your knitting supplies on you when you ended up on the mountain?”

“I mean yeah, I like to make them new ones,” War shrugged. “They chase each other and slap each other and they have sharp claws so sometimes the sweaters get torn, so I like to have extra. And no, I barely had anything when I got dumped in that snow bank, there was a kind lady who just… gave me the yarn. I bought some knitting needles from her later because I realized I had absolutely nothing to use with the yarn, but she just gave it to me.”

“That was kind of her. I have to admit, I’m glad you have something to do while I’m sleeping. I don’t like the fact that I hold us back but it makes me feel better that you can knit while you wait,” he said plainly. “It doesn’t feel like a waste of a day that way.” 

“I really don’t mind you getting the sleep you need,” War told him with a small frown, “I can always find things to do. Knit, walk around, get food, sometimes I write.”

“My brothers are pretty patient with it too, especially Sky since he can also sleep in. I don’t know why it bothers me so much - if anybody else needed a break, I would do anything to make sure they got a break even if they didn’t ask for it.” Warriors didn’t look or sound upset, so perhaps he was just thinking out loud. 

“I get it,” he said softly, squinting out across the grass in an attempt to see if they were coming up on anything interesting, but he couldn’t really make out anything but hills, rocks, and what was most likely a line of trees. “I’ve been told I have a habit of working until I drop, because I don’t like sitting around which is stupid because I try to get the others to rest and I know I need to as well but I just feel selfish when I need something, I guess.”

“Do you think it’s because of your training? You said you got torture training.” He couldn’t see Warriors’ face because of his mask but he could hear the concern in his voice. 

He stopped walking, staring out across the path at the distant trees in shock. That… That did make sense. He’d always been active as a child and even now he didn’t like to sit in one spot for too long, but there was a difference between that and the panic he felt now when he found himself with nothing to do. The itchy feeling in his bones begging him to get up and just run around was different than the painfully uncomfortable feeling he got when he found himself thinking about how he needed something to do because if he was sitting around doing nothing then he wasn’t being useful and if he wasn’t useful then there really wasn’t much point to him at all. His old commanding officer had gotten that idea beaten into him. Sure the intense pressure of the war being his fault left him with a heavy guilt that he carried with him, and after he’d caused so much death and destruction he didn’t think it was fair of him to be greedy and allow himself to rest when he could be trying to fix things, but maybe the physical abuse he’d gone through had affected him more than he’d thought. 

“Huh…” He huffed out in surprise. “I… Probably??”

“Was that too personal?” Warriors asked, watching him from further up the road. 

It was a little strange to him exactly how much he’d told the other hero about himself during the short time they’d known each other. He usually didn’t like to tell people things about himself because with the entire kingdom expecting certain things from him, expecting him to act and behave a certain way while barely caring what he was actually like, and a sorceress who had spied on him and had known gods know what, it was nice to be able to keep his mouth shut about certain things and have his own secrets. He hadn’t even told his traveling companions, his brothers, about the torture training he’d gone through or told them what his first name was, and for some reason he’d just told Warriors about it like it was no big deal and the fact that he’d done that hadn’t even bothered him.

“No, you just caught me by surprise,” he answered honestly, forcing himself to start moving again. He didn’t really mind talking about it, not at this point, it was simply a thing that had happened. “I don’t even remember most of it.”

“You don’t remember most of the training? That’s probably for the best,” Warriors said quietly, matching his pace so that he was walking beside War again. “I can’t imagine what that would have been like. My training was a little rushed but I believe it was standard, for the most part..” 

“The torture shit isn’t standard,” he mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. “I didn’t realize that until much later. But the field medicine I learned isn’t standard either, they just had me doing that because they took one look at me when I’d gotten drafted and decided I’d probably die on the front lines, so they stuck me with a general known for quickly whipping young soldiers into shape, right when the war started. The training was his idea.”

“Wait, your field medic training isn’t standard? I guess you couldn’t really use standard medicine on me but everything you did made sense. Was mine also not standard?” He said the last part in a hushed voice like he was saying it just to himself but War still heard him. 

“Oh, no I mean it’s my learning that was not standard,” he clarified. “Every soldier learned basic stuff, like ‘put pressure on wounds’, ‘don’t pull out what’s impaled you’, ‘this is how you wrap a bandage’, and all that fun stuff, but I just learned more than they did. There are absolutely people who know more than me, I was only trained for two years before the war started and I learned a bit more on my own afterwards, but I can like… set broken bones and sew up wounds. And apparently also sew limbs back on. Most soldiers in my era cannot.”

“Yeah, I bet that was fun to figure out. You didn’t really appreciate it when I pulled out the icicle either,” Warriors said with a laugh. “Actually, now that I think about it, I hope my brothers don’t get too used to taking care of a vampire.”

“What do you mean?” War asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“There’s nothing they can do that will permanently affect me, so they can break the basic rules when they take care of me. They do frequently pull out what’s impaling me, the most cleaning they’ll do for my wounds is make sure there’s no debris in, stuff like that. That’s all stuff they should not take back with them when this is all over. That will kill people. They are more careful with each other and they’re relatively fine, but what if - for a split second - they forgot that they aren't taking care of a vampire?” 

“Just from my experience taking care of different soldiers and my brothers, some of whom have medical conditions and things they need to look out for or things that are more dangerous to them than to others, I think it would be more likely they’d forget that you are a vampire and don’t have the risk of dying from certain things,” War said slowly as he thought about it. “I know I haven’t known you as long as they have but even with how many times you tell me it’ll be fine or I don’t need to do something, it’s instinct for me to treat you like you are going to die. I think in general people tend to be more cautious, especially when they’re dealing with people they care a lot about.”

“You were really cautious about my arm and I can only speak about when I was actually conscious and aware of what you were doing,” he said with a hum. “It did the trick though. I was a little annoyed but my arm healed really fast, so I can’t really argue.”

“I wanted it to heal quickly and I didn’t want you to be in a lot of pain.” He decided not to comment on Warriors being annoyed with how cautious he was. They’d already talked several times about how much his friend’s brothers and War as well didn’t like seeing him in pain, just because he could heal from things other people wouldn’t be able to didn’t mean he shouldn’t be treated with the same amount of care.

“It took all night for my arm to heal the last time I lost it. Well, technically, I lost my sword arm last night but anyway…” He trailed off, his pace slowing down. “I did appreciate the fact that you didn’t use stitches until I woke up. I don’t hold it against my brothers because if it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have discovered that I could regenerate over them, but I’m… touched that you remembered.” 

“Of course I remembered, I don’t have the best memory but I don’t want to end up hurting you. I just guessed that wrapping it up how I did would provide enough pressure to hold it on, long enough for you to heal anyways,” War stopped walking as fast so he didn’t leave his friend behind. “I didn’t want to have to use stitches, but I’m glad everything ended up working alright.”

“If we were in a safe place the whole time, I’m sure the bandages would have worked,” he said with a nod and then after a moment of silence, he continued, “Not that I’m going to try it but I wonder how long a limb can stay separated from my body for. Like, if theoretically, we waited until later to reattach my arm…” 

There were times when War was incredibly good at thinking before he spoke and not just blurting things out, in fact he’d like to say that he almost always thought before he opened his mouth, but before he could stop himself from saying something ridiculous he found himself asking, “You mean like… You think it would find a way to attach itself anyway? Or that it’d like… Grow back…?”

“I was thinking we could have smuggled it into the inn and go from there but I think it could grow back. If my body is supposed to go back to the way it was when I was cursed and I had two arms, then I should regenerate to the point where I have two arms again. I’m not really willing to try it though. Maybe a finger but not a whole arm,” he said with a shrug. 

“Yeah, testing that sounds like a bad idea,” War laughed, but he couldn’t stop his brain from coming up with a scenario in which he’d somehow lost Warriors’s arm and the two of them had been forced to sit and wait to see if it’d come back. 

“If I ever find out if I can regrow a limb after we go home, I will let you know somehow. Even if I have to send a message through Lana,” Warriors said. “I don’t plan on finding out but if something really bad happens, which is unfortunately more likely than I appreciate, and I do lose a limb and can’t get stitched back on, I will let you know what happens.” 

He smiled, turning to glance at the other hero. Even if it weren’t possible to keep sending messages across the eras after their journey was done, War was touched his friend would think to send him something. “I hope you don’t find yourself in a situation where a limb gets cut off again, but it would be good to hear from you.”

“I would like to hear from you too, especially if you and Sidney end up together. You might not be sure if there’s a chance for a relationship, but I believe in you two!”

War felt his cheeks go bright red and he let out a groan, burying his face in his hands. “You’re going to find a way to my era just to call me a loser if I fumble this one, aren’t you?”

Warriors stopped for a second and looked at him for a moment before continuing. “If Sidney says no when you two sound perfect for each other, I’m going to bite him. Not as hard as I would bite your nobles, of course, but I will bite him.” 

He couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “You don’t even know him, you just know what I’ve said. What if we end up being the worst couple in history or something?”

Warriors shrugged. “True, but I doubt that. You wouldn’t speak so fondly of him if he wasn’t a decent guy and your grumpy cat approves of him, which is all the evidence I really need. I don’t think I will even need to bite him.”

War let out a sigh as he shook his head. “I guess you have a point.” He knew well enough by now that Sidney was more than a decent person, he wouldn’t find himself spending time with him so frequently if he didn’t think so and the marquess had had more than enough time by now to betray or hurt him if that’d been his intention. 

“Is there a reason why you think he might say no, if you don’t mind me asking?” Warriors asked quietly. 

“Because who in their right mind would want to spend the rest of their life with me?” He mumbled, glaring down at his boots. “I’m an absolute mess. People who usually express interest in me could care less about what I’m interested in or what I want or anything else because they just think I have a pretty face and treat me like some damn trophy, they’re not bothered by all my issues because they simply don’t care, but he seems genuinely interested in the things I like. He listens to me when I ramble about useless shit and gods can I ramble, I’m obnoxious and irritating and don’t know when to shut up. And when I’m not well he’s been nothing but gentle and understanding and I don’t get it because I know I’m exhausting to be around when I’m like that and he could just leave, it’d be so much easier and less stressful for him. It just… It doesn’t make sense to me that he’d actually want something with me. He deserves someone who isn’t as draining as I am...” His last few words were so quiet it felt more like he was mouthing them than making sound.

“Because you’re a nice person who deserves nice things and nice people to spend your life with. If I said all the shit you just said, you would say something similar. I know we’re kind of shit at taking our own advice but be nice to yourself and I will try to do the same. Maybe he doesn’t think you’re draining to be around. I certainly don’t,” Warriors said firmly. 

“…I’m scared I’m going to let myself accept something nice like this and get attached and then find myself in a position where he realizes I’m not worth the trouble,” he whispered, digging his nails into the palm of his hand in a desperate attempt to stop the burning in his eyes before tears started to fall. 

“You’re not trouble, War. I’m sure he sees that too. Do you want a hug?” he said, holding his arms up. 

War blinked in shock at the offer but he did nod, not trusting his voice to not make him sound pathetic. Warriors wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close, and he let his head fall on his friend’s shoulder with a small sigh. It’d been a minute since someone had hugged him, he’d been happy to hold Warriors when he’d been worried about the skulltula venom but the other hero had been too exhausted to hug him back. He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed this.

But he didn’t want to seem needy and he wasn’t sure how long Warriors would be willing to put up with him for, so after a moment he pulled away a little and went back to staring down at his boots with a small, “Thanks.”

“It’s not a problem. Don’t be nervous about asking for more either. I don’t always like touch but I don’t mind if you ask for it,” Warriors said firmly, keeping his hand on his back. It was where the other hero had hand when he hugged him. 

“Oh, alright,” he said, trying not to sound too surprised by the offer. “Thank you, really.”

They went back to walking in silence, though War didn’t mind. It was nice to just listen to the wind and the occasional bird or small creature running through the grass as the trees grew closer, and as they reached the first line of trees War realized that what he’d initially guessed could be a forest was actually just a small grouping of trees around a beautiful lake. They’d been moving slightly uphill for most of their walk so it made sense that it’d been obscured from sight. 

Warriors went right up the water, sitting at the edge of it as he looked up at the trees. “Do you think it’s shady enough to take my mask off? I think we’re due for a break but it would be nice to eat some plums and actually enjoy the sights while I can.” 

“Yeah, I think so,” he nodded, heading towards a small little spot where the grass was a bit shorter and sitting down. There were also more than a few clouds in the sky that might also provide some cover for his friend if the sunlight slipped through the leaves. 

Warriors pushed the hood off his cloak down and slid the mask up so it rested on the top of his head instead. He also removed his sword and shield, setting them against a tree. He then took out a rag and a couple of plums and happily ate them. “It’s too bad I can’t go swimming. I’m already pushing it by eating plums like this.” 

“I’ve never really been swimming,” War sighed, figuring they’d be sitting here for at least a bit of time so he unpinned his scarf and set his things down before pulling out his journal. He hadn’t gotten to finish writing that morning and now seemed like a good chance to wrap up his letter. There was an incredibly low chance of him ever sending it, but formatting his thoughts and his experiences as if they were a report always helped him keep track of things.

“Really? Do you just not enjoy it?” Warriors asked with a raised eyebrow as he bit into a plum. 

“I just didn’t really ever go into the water as a kid, there was a river somewhat near by but the current is so strong that my Ma told me and my sisters to never go in it and we listened. I've walked in shallow water before, but I haven’t actually ever gone swimming,” he shrugged. 

He frowned. “So you don’t know how to swim?” 

“I do not, no,” War mumbled. It felt fucking stupid to admit at his grown age, but there really hadn’t been a chance for him to learn and he wasn’t entirely sure how he could accomplish that. He hadn’t run into too much trouble with it so far, and it wasn’t often that he found himself near water so he figured it was fine.

“It’s a good thing the survival of our era didn’t depend on dungeon exploring, huh? I think the others mentioned having to do a water temple before because they have equipment that lets them breathe underwater. I don’t even like being in a regular dungeon, one that’s underwater just sounds unpleasant,” Warriors mumbled as he rolled his eyes. 

He shuddered and made a disgusted sound. “I think I would’ve lost my mind in a dungeon. Just constantly feeling like something’s right behind you and it’s going to attack and not knowing what rooms are traps or which doors will lock behind you? No fucking thanks.”

“The first time I could explore a dungeon with the others, they spent a long time debating on what they should be doing. I didn’t help because I didn’t have experience but they’re not the kind of puzzles I enjoy either so I was bored. Maybe I could have come to appreciate them if I had to do several of them like the others but that’s not where I am right now. I would be happy if I never had to explore one again,” he said with a shrug. 

“One of them was saying something about hating the puzzle part and honestly that seems like the only part that doesn’t suck to me,” War huffed, writing a few more lines down in his journal before closing it and putting it to the side.

“Which one said that?” he asked, finishing off another plum. “Wild was kind of bored like I was.” 

“I don’t remember,” War admitted, frowning out across the lake. “It might’ve been Sky...? I remember him saying he’d get frustrated with the dungeons sometimes because he’d get really turned around or have to stop and go home in the middle of them and then be confused when he came back, and that he wished he could just get from one end to the other. But I know he’s good at puzzles and strategy games, he’s the only one of our little group who’s managed to beat me at chess.”

“Huh…” Warriors mumbled. “I thought you had to like, complete a dungeon before you left but I only explored one and went in two, so I’m far from an expert.” 

“Apparently he could leave,” he shrugged. “He said it’d be full with monsters again when he came back, but the doors he unlocked stayed that way. Though honestly I’m not sure how much that helped him because he’d tell me he’d forget which doors he’d already gone through and then get angry with himself.”

“I can see why he might not have enjoyed the puzzles, or maybe dungeons in general. How many have you gone through?”

“Technically only a fourth of one…” War grumbled, bringing his legs to his chest so he could rest his chin on his knees. 

“What? Did you get hurt or something?” he asked with a frown. 

Nothing was making him tell Warriors the truth, he could’ve just lied and told him that yeah, that was the reason, but even though he felt his ears and cheeks burning he found himself mumbling out the truth anyway. “Legend and I stumbled into one and we got trapped in a very, very small room and we couldn’t get the door open and I started freaking out and tried to pry it open with my sword and he kept getting mad at me for making so much noise, and eventually he got it open somehow and I was so thrilled to get out of there I completely fucking forgot my sword and Legend had to grab it for me…”

“I kind of get it. I was contemplating using my vampire powers to break a door open because I wanted to get out of the dungeon quicker, but I decided that I should try to complete at least one dungeon without shattering any of my bones.” Warriors shook his left hand, like the thought of breaking the door open hurt it. 

“Yeah, not breaking bones is good,” he said with a small frown.

“At least my bones regenerate too. They heal just as well as flesh does as long as I set them or at least put them back into the general shape they should be in.” 

War really wanted to say something about how his friend’s insane healing ability was not an excuse to not be careful with himself, but he bit his tongue and kept quiet. He didn’t want to start an argument with the other hero, especially since Warriors seemed to be in a decent mood.

Before he could think of something to change the subject to, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye and he whipped his head to the side to see what it was and almost shrieked in excitement when he saw it was a frog. He hadn’t seen one in a while, and he wanted to get a closer look at it but when he leaned forward a little it hopped away. 

“Noooo, come back,” he pouted as he watched it head towards the lake.

“Sorry, it’s probably avoiding me,” Warriors said quietly. 

“I wanna go look at it,” War told him, deciding if he was going towards the water that it’d probably be smart to take off his boots and socks because he’d rather die than have to walk the rest of the day with wet feet. He rolled up his trousers a bit too, just for good measure, before slowly walking over to where the frog had gone and crouching down a respectful distance from it.

The frog just stared back at him, as frogs do, and didn’t move much. 

“Be careful. Sometimes lakes are deeper than they look,” Warriors said firmly, staying at his spot just by the edge of the lake. 

“I will!” He waved a hand at him, smiling at the frog. The frog had gone to sit just at the edge of the water, it was barely brushing against War’s toes.

He’d really had no intention of going further, he just wanted to see the frog, but when he raised his chin a little to look across the water he caught sight of some kind of shiny shell. It made him think of Wild and all the snails he had on his beaches, so out of curiosity to see what it was he took a few steps further into the water. But before he could get a good look at the thing, something from behind him slammed into his left hip and he let out a scream as he went stumbling forwards, landing face down in the water. It was just deep enough that it’d gone over his head and he ended up inhaling some of it in his shock but he was able to flip himself around and sit up, all the coughing and choking he was doing stopped him from crying over how bad his hip was throbbing. 

“Fuck!” Warriors called out, sitting his mask down as he stood up and started walking over, though he was looking for something as he did so. 

It was hard to think with the ache in his side radiating through his entire body but looking around in his panic hadn’t helped him spot what had just hit him, and all War knew was that he needed to get up and move. He didn’t have his sword on him, he’d left it with the rest of his things a little further up on the hill and something was telling him this would not be a situation that his daggers could get him out of. Biting his lip so hard he was worried for a moment he’d bite through it, he managed to keep himself from screaming again as he pushed himself to his feet, just in time for a giant rock to come flying out of nowhere and slam right into the middle of his chest. The force knocked the air out of his lungs and drove him backwards, and in his attempt to stay upright he ended up taking several large steps backwards. But he’d completely forgotten what Warriors had said about how deep lakes can get, and he’d forgotten that there wasn’t always an even, gradual decline into the water. His heart felt like it dropped right out of his chest when his foot reached for what should’ve been the sandy bottom of the lake but found nothing, and he fell straight back and into the deep water before he had time to cry out for help.

He tried to stay calm, but he was in so much pain and his lungs had been screaming for air before he’d even fallen under the surface that he was struggling to figure out what to do or how to even help himself. Logically he knew he couldn’t be that deep yet so he should try to just move forward, and that might’ve been a good plan had his leg not brushed up against something that sent pain shooting through his whole body like lightning. He wanted to continue moving but after he felt his body involuntarily seize up, he couldn’t stop himself from taking in a gasping breath of water and his eyes rolled back.

Shit shit shit shit, Warriors thought to himself as he ran towards the deeper part of the lake where he saw War disappear. He didn’t care about the octorok that he spotted after it already hit the other hero because the damn thing could wait until after he made sure War wasn’t drowning. He wasn’t the strongest swimmer and he never tried to save anybody before, so he summoned his fangs just in case he needed the strength that his powers gave him.

It was quite the sudden change from shallow water to deep water. He warned War that it could be the case but even he was surprised when his foot landed on nothing. He managed to adjust himself, took a deep breath, and began to swim downwards. He spotted War quickly but he was sinking and his eyes were closed, which immediately struck Warriors as wrong. Drowning was a slow death and it didn’t make sense for War to already be unconscious when he was in the water for maybe a minute. 

Then he saw it, a dark shape under the water. He continued to swim down, avoiding the dark shape, and grabbed War by the arm. Just as he started to drag him back to the surface, there was a flash of light around the dark shape that made Warriors feel tingly. If he was closer, he was sure that the current would have made him seize up or he might have fallen unconscious like War did. He nearly let War go even with the distance but he held on and waited until the electricity disappeared, and then swam as quickly as he could to clear it before it could try to shock him again. It was hard for him to swim with one arm but between his powers and the sheer determination to save his friend, he managed to break the surface and drag his unconscious friend to the shallow end. 

However, before he could drag War back to land, he saw a rock flying at him from the corner of his eye. Warriors didn’t bring his shield or his sword and it was coming at him from his left side so without thinking, he crouched down to cover War and used his sword arm to protect his head. He cried out from the sharp pain that erupted in his arm but his head was fine, so he continued to drag War until they were both on land. 

He settled War on his back and he quickly noted his blue lips, so without hesitation, he put one hand over the other and began pressing down on his chest. He didn't use his superhuman strength because he didn’t want to shatter his ribs but he wasn’t gentle either. When War continued to lay lifelessly, Warriors pressed again and again until War suddenly started to cough.

His eyes flew wide open and he started twitching on the ground, gasping and choking and failing to move much as he fought to get out all the water he’d inhaled. Warriors turned him over so he was resting on his right side but before he could do anything else, he heard that telltale sound of another rock flying through the air. His shield wasn’t in reach yet, so he once again defended the two of them with his already damaged left arm. He winced and hissed as pain radiated down his arm and up to his shoulder but he just took a deep breath to push it out his mind. 

Warriors wanted to make sure that War was okay but he couldn’t do that with that fucking octorok around. He scanned their surroundings until Warriors spotted that fucker pop out of the ground. Ah, one of Wild’s. He took a shard of the rock that broke on his arm and threw it back at it, using his super strength to nail it before it could fire another rock. Thankfully, it died immediately but he used his left arm to do it and now it was really beginning to hurt to move it. It throbbed in pain even when he didn’t move it but he did his best to ignore it, deciding to turn back around to examine War. 

The other hero laid there shaking, staring blankly in front of him with one of his hands trying to reach for his neck but the effort of just breathing must have been exhausting to him because he couldn’t move much. His breaths were uneven and sounded pained, and he didn’t seem to notice Warriors when he moved closer to him.

Warriors took a deep breath to calm himself down, then grabbed the closest bag he found and stuck his arm inside, feeling around for a bottle until he felt smooth glass and pulled it, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was a red potion. 

“War? Can you hear me? I have a potion,” he said softly. 

War made a horrible coughing noise, still struggling to get his hand closer to his neck, but he did look at him, eyes full of panic.

“You got hit in the chest with a rock, so a potion should help you breathe easier,” Warriors said, keeping his voice calm despite the excruciating pain he felt in his arm as he took the cork out of the bottle. “Do you need me to prop your head up?” 

The other hero stayed still for a moment while he processed what had been said to him before he slowly nodded, wincing as he kept shaking. Warriors kept the potion in his right hand, which he trusted more than his actual dominant hand, then he moved so that he was sitting behind War before he lifted his head up just enough so he could rest it on his lap. 

“Are you ready?” he asked, bringing the potion closer to War’s face. 

War nodded again, making a pained sound as he tried to take a deep breath. Warriors carefully brought the potion to War’s lips and tilted it slowly so that War wouldn’t choke. Once War finished the bottle, he capped it and stuffed it back into the bag it came from. It took him a second to realize that it belonged to War, and he was glad that he didn’t actually look through the bag but he still felt kind of bad that he rummaged through it nonetheless. Oh well, War’s life was more important than his things. 

“Are you feeling better?” he asked. 

War gave him a small hum in response. The other hero looked dazed as he stared up at him, but his breathing had evened out a bit even if it stayed a little fast. He was still shaking the same as before, though he seemed to have a bit of strength back and finally managed to lift his hand up to his neck to yank away his shirt collar. 

“I killed that octorok too, so we don’t have to worry about that bastard anymore. We can rest for a bit,” Warriors said gently. “You let me rest before, it’s only fair to let you get some rest.” 

“Cold,” he mumbled. His face still looked a little pale but he was looking better and better the longer he just kept breathing.

Warriors looked around. He couldn’t use any of own clothes because they were also wet but he could see War’s perfectly dry scarf nearby and he managed to grab it with his left arm. He winced at the pain but he didn’t want War to know that his arm was broken just yet so he tried his best to silently deal with the pain for the time being. Once he had the scarf, he draped it over War, though it was a little awkward when he couldn’t move his legs much. 

“Do you want your head on the ground?” he asked. 

“Feel like ‘m gonna throw up, or pass out, or maybe both,” the other hero muttered. 

“So no.” The last thing it sounded like he should do was to move War when he felt nauseous. Maybe he would move him if he actually passed out but for now, he was going to keep his legs as still as possible. He did still want to kill whatever that thing in the water was if he could since that could be dangerous to other people but it could wait. “We’ll just stay here for now.” 

“Is my heart rate normal?” He whispered, blinking up at him.

Warriors resisted the urge to swear out loud because he couldn’t believe he didn’t check it earlier. He was more worried about War not breathing than he was about his heart. “I didn’t check earlier but I can do it now,” he said, putting two fingers from his right hand on his neck and stayed quiet as he counted. He would have used his left hand but it was already throbbing as it was and he was worried that it would make his count inaccurate. “It’s a little fast.” 

War visibly relaxed, letting out a shaky sigh. “Otherwise normal?” 

“Otherwise normal,” he confirmed. Thankfully, his heart rate was otherwise normal because he hadn’t needed to do chest compressions since he got cursed and he couldn’t help but still be a little worried that he messed up somehow. War was breathing and conscious but the anxiety persisted. “Do you remember what happened?” 

“I think so, but I…” the other hero said slowly. “There’s something in the water. My leg hit it and it, um… it…” He frowned, mumbling to himself as he struggled to get his thoughts together. “I think I was shocked. My heart was beating so hard when you pulled me out that I could feel it and it wasn’t even but I couldn’t feel it as much after the potion, that’s why I had you check.”

“I felt whatever was in the water. I was too far for it to actually hurt me but I still felt tingly. If your heart was struggling though, that might have been because I needed to do chest compressions,” he said with a frown. “You weren’t breathing when I dragged you out of the water.” 

“I… I wasn’t…?” War’s eyes widened. “I guess that adds up… I think I inhaled quite a bit of water, not sure I coughed all that up, and if I had to guess I think my ribs are still bruised because they hurt.”

Warriors grimaced. He knew that chest compressions could injure or even break ribs but they were done anyway because those injuries could be fixed. There was nothing to fix if the person died. He knew he did the right thing, and maybe it was the rock that broke or bruised his ribs and not the chest compressions, but he felt bad that he might have made those injuries worse.

“Do you need another potion?” he asked. 

“I don’t want to use up our limited supply, but I think I need one,” War said very quietly. “Breathing really does not feel good, and it’s kinda hard.”

Warriors grabbed the bag from earlier. “I just felt for the potion last time since it was your bag. I didn’t look inside,” he mumbled, though he wasn’t sure why he did so. He wasn’t sure how War felt about people going through his things but he probably didn’t enjoy it. “Did you want to check yourself this time?”

The other hero didn’t speak for a long moment, frowning to himself as he considered his answer. Warriors felt him attempt to lift his head and shoulder before falling back down with a defeated, pained sigh. “Could you grab it? There should be at least one more in there, in roughly the same spot.”

Warriors took a deep breath, turned his head away, and once again stuffed his hand in the bag. He first found the empty bottle he shoved in there but once he set that aside, it didn’t take him long to find another bottle full of red potion. He opened it with a wince and held it in front of War, giving the hero a chance to grab it if he wanted to. 

War’s hand was shaking a bit when he took the bottle, but he managed to drink half of it without spilling any before carefully passing it back. Warriors put it back into the bag, along with the empty bottle. 

“Thanks,” he whispered, looking more comfortable than he had been but his breathing still hadn’t returned to normal. 

“Do you need to nap for a bit before we get going again? I could go back and try to kill that thing while you rest.” He wasn’t sure how he was going to kill something underwater but he had some of his tools from the war, so he had options. It certainly made him wish he had the others with him though - one them could identify the thing and would probably know how to kill it. 

“I am tired,” War admitted, his voice soft and some of his words slurring together, “but you’re going to need to keep an eye on me and make sure I’m fine. I don’t know how bad the shock was or how much the potion fixed, but we need to watch and make sure I don’t have brain damage or something and that my heart doesn’t go back to doing weird shit. Wake me up immediately if my breathing sounds worse, my chest still hurts and I don’t think it’s my ribs.”

“Got it,” Warriors said with a nod. It would give him a chance to look at his arm at least and while he couldn’t go kill the thing if he needed to listen to War, he was fine with leaving it be until War felt better. 

“Thanks,” he whispered, letting his eyes drift closed.

When he was sure that War was asleep, he gently removed his brace and glove. His forearm was already a deep purple with some red along the edges of the bruise. It went a bit past his elbow but otherwise, his hand and bicep were normal. With the other glove still on his right hand, he couldn’t feel quite as well as he would have liked but he could definitely feel his bones shift and move in a way intact bones shouldn’t be able to. It was hard for him to feel exactly how many breaks he had but he could feel at least three different breaks. 

None of it was unexpected. That was what he got for not bringing his shield with him when there was an octorok on the loose. It wasn’t even in the right era but he had a hard time believing that the shadow brought just one… unless it was also responsible for the thing in the water as well. Maybe that was the real trap and the octorok was just something to annoy them. Either way, he didn’t appreciate it. He put his glove back on but he decided to keep the bracer off.

When he was done with looking at his arm, he decided to just sit and listen. War didn’t sound worse, it was the same odd cackling noise he made since he woke up, so he let him sleep. He didn’t sound better but War only seemed to be concerned about it getting worse, so he let him sleep until the sun was beginning to set. 

“Hey, War, we need to start camp preparations,” he said, tapping on his head gently. 

The other hero sucked in a sharp breath before breaking out into a coughing fit, trying to push himself off the ground and look around but he seemed a little too disoriented to do much but lift his head. Warriors gently helped him, pulling him off the ground and sitting him up. Warriors slid himself so that he was behind War, ready to support his weight if he couldn’t support himself. His arm reminded him that it was very much broken but instead of telling War or taking the other half of his potion, he simply took a deep breath and did his best to ignore it. 

War continued coughing for a good minute until he’d exhausted himself, slumping back against him and shaking a little as he wheezed. Warriors used his left arm to sit him up a little straight and silently, he started rubbing circles into his back, particularly where he knew his lungs were. He didn’t know if it would help or not but War did seem to relax a little bit. 

“Fuck,” the other hero mumbled once he no longer seemed so out of breath.

“Feeling any better?” he asked quietly. “You should probably have something to eat and drink.”

“Food would be good,” War nodded. 

Warriors once again reached for the other hero’s bag and pulled it closer to them, leaving it by War’s hand. “Do you want me to find your snacks or are you strong enough to do it yourself?”

“I can try,” he sighed, pulling his bag into his lap so he could dig through it easier. He was shaking a little and breathing heavily as he tried to keep himself upright, but he managed to grab the pouch he kept his snack in. “You want any?”

“Sure,” he mumbled, taking a small handful of the dried apricots since he had a love-hate relationship with the cashews. He ate what he grabbed but nothing more since the only thing that would make him feel full at this point was blood. War needed whatever he could keep down. 

“How long was I asleep?” War asked, failing to hold back a cough.

“About an hour or so,” he answered. “I don’t mind if you decide to go back to sleep for some more. You probably need it.” 

War seemed like he was struggling to keep himself upright, he kept tipping almost too far to the side before trying his best to sit up. “Are we going to stay here for the night?” 

“I think it would be the best. I don’t think you’re in any condition to travel and I haven’t seen anything else pop up. I think the only monster here is that fucker in the water. It’s not ideal but it’s safe,” Warriors answered. “Can you sit up on your own? I can set up the bed roll. I’m sure it’s more comfortable than me.” 

“Okay,” he wheezed, placing his hands on the ground at his sides for extra support. Once Warriors was sure that he wasn’t going to fall over and hurt himself, he retrieved his own bag and pulled his bed roll and extra blanket out. He set up behind War so that he didn’t have to go far. 

“It’s ready,” he said quietly as he stood up. The other thing he had to do was try and get a fire going so that War wouldn’t be freezing in his wet clothes. He quietly gathered sticks from the trees near the lake with War still in view, even as his arm screamed in pain. Warriors tried to be gentle with it by using his right hand to pick up the stickers and just use his left arm to hold them but even that was painful. Regardless, he returned with his pile, found a spot that was kind of close to War but wouldn’t start a forest fire, and got busy organizing the sticks and striking some flint until he had a small fire going. 

“There we go. That should help!” 

“Thanks,” War whispered, looking a little out of it. 

“Do you need more help?” Warriors asked with a frown. 

The other hero stared down at his little bag of cashews with a confused look. “I should probably actually eat these, huh.”

Warriors nodded. “You need whatever you can eat. It’s been a long… few hours. Damn.” 

“Do I look okay?” He mumbled, grabbing a few cashews before turning to stare at him.

“You’re a little pale and you look super tired, but nothing some rest can’t fix,” he said with a small smile. “Speaking of rest though, I have the first watch. You can go back to sleep whenever you want.” 

“You eat enough?” War asked with a concerned little frown.

“I’m fine,” he said with a nod. It felt weird lying to War. Well, he wasn’t exactly lying - the only thing that War had that could help him out now was blood and he refused to take that from somebody who needed chest compressions and had something else going on in his chest. There was no point in eating if he wasn’t going to feel full but War didn’t need to know that tonight. When the other hero was feeling better and could do something about it, Warriors would tell him, but he wasn’t going to stress him out right now. 

“Okay,” he said quietly, starting to tilt a little too far to the left. Warriors scrambled to catch him, using his right hand to catch his shoulder while he just kept his broken arm as still as physically possible. War flinched at the initial contact but relaxed once he was no longer falling over.

“Have you eaten enough? Maybe you should go back to sleep now.” 

He got a tired hum in response, followed after a good minute by a small nod. 

“Okay, setting you down…” Warriors mumbled, slowly lowering his friend down to the ground so that he was resting on his right. He draped the blanket on top of him and his scarf as well since it was still dry. 

“Wake me up for my shift?” War looked up at him, fighting to keep his eyes open.

Warriors simply nodded. It was enough for War though because as soon as he got his answer, he closed his eyes. 

He decided to just stay by him. As much as he wanted to kill that thing in the water, he didn’t know how long it would take and he didn’t want to leave War when he wasn’t feeling his best. In fact, he was glad he didn’t leave when he heard War cough. It didn’t wake him up but it sounded rattly, likely the result of the water he inhaled. 

Thankfully, other than the occasional cough throughout the night, Warriors didn’t see any indication of his breathing getting worse and there wasn’t any sign of monsters either. Other than War and his coughing, the night was pretty quiet.

Chapter Text

War wasn’t entirely sure at what point he’d woken up, but when he was starting to become more aware of his surroundings he found himself curled up on the ground, struggling to hold himself up on his forearm with how badly his body was shaking as he coughed so hard he was worried he might throw up. It felt more like he was choking, it was hard to get a good breath in, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. When it was finally over he let himself just collapse with a low groan, squeezing his eyes shut and just focusing on catching his breath. His body felt so sore and stiff and his lungs burned, but he pushed through the discomfort because he needed air.

“Are you okay?” Warriors asked quietly. 

He forced his head up to try to look at his friend beside him but he moved a little too quickly and lowered it back down when a wave of dizziness slammed into him. The cool morning air felt nice on his face, and it helped him ground himself for a moment before he could conjure the energy to respond.

“I’ll live.” It sounded more like a whimper than he’d wanted it to. “Probably.”

“Maybe you should rest a bit more,” Warriors suggested. “Once we find a town, we can pass out for a while but you need to be well enough to make it there.”

It was light out, though the sun wasn’t too high in the sky yet, and while he truthfully could’ve gone back to sleep quite easily he didn’t want to waste time. He knew he wouldn’t be moving quickly, he felt like he couldn’t get a full breath and he was just laying around doing nothing, he’d need breaks during the day and he wouldn’t be able to keep his usual pace. The earlier they left the greater chance they would actually be able to make it to a town. A real, warm meal would be good for him, he felt cold and miserable, and it wouldn’t hurt to see if there was a doctor who could help get him something to make sure he didn’t get some infection. He didn’t get sick often but he’d inhaled a good amount of lake water, he could feel it, and the last thing he needed was to be bedridden because he’d gotten pneumonia. 

“No,” he shook his head gently as he pushed himself up. His arms shook beneath him but he managed to stay upright through sheer willpower and move himself into a sitting position. “We should get going as soon as we can, I got enough-”

It was light out. It was morning. Warriors had let him sleep through his shift. 

“Why didn’t you wake me up for watch??” War’s head snapped in his friend’s direction.

“You really needed the sleep and I woke up late anyway,” Warriors answered, looking away from  him but War still caught his yellow and red eyes. 

He tried to push down the anger he felt, because the other hero was right and he really had needed the sleep, but he was upset because he’d specifically asked Warriors to wake him up. “You told me you would.”

“I intended to but you kept coughing and that didn’t wake you up. You clearly needed the sleep.”

War pinched the bridge of his nose and clenched his jaw, struggling to take a deep breath to calm down. He knew damn well he would’ve done the same thing, his friend was just trying to look out for him, but he did not like that the other hero hadn’t kept his word, even if War had probably benefited from that. There were only two of them and with having to share watch, the amount of sleep they got was not ideal, but it was unfair for one of them to be up all night. Not to mention exhaustion slowed reaction time and since they were on their own they needed to be as prepared as they could be for the dangers they’d encounter on the road.

“Can vampires function with less sleep or something?” he asked, trying not to sound snappy or rude. “You usually sleep a lot, do you need to rest before we leave?”

“I can last until we get to a town,” Warriors mumbled, cradling his left arm close to his chest. “I’ve marched a full day with little to no sleep before.” 

War narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he stared directly at how carefully his friend was holding his arm. He was being a little too gentle with it, like it was hurting him, and War didn’t like the small voice in the back of his mind immediately flooding his thoughts with worst case scenarios. Warriors would’ve told him if something had happened, right? They were close enough that he wouldn’t have tried to hide being hurt, right…?

He felt his pulse start racing and he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and write it off as the other hero just being weird or something, but he found himself asking about it anyway, needing to silence the doubt in his mind. “Is something wrong?”

“The octorok from yesterday broke my arm.” Warriors didn’t even look at him when he answered but he did pull the glove off his hand and rolled his sleeve up. His arm was swollen and almost entirely purple from his wrist to just past his elbow. “I was going to tell you sooner but… Your health was more important.” 

His heart stopped in his chest and he felt his jaw drop, though he was far more focused on how absolutely horrible his friend’s arm looked. He didn’t need to look any closer at it to tell it was a bad break, and his control over his anger snapped when he realized that Warriors had been sitting there in pain this entire time. He’d been helping War sit up and preparing a fire and dragging him out of the water and saving his life with his arm like that, and he hadn’t mentioned it once. 

“The octorok hit it twice. The first time was when I was trying to take you back to land. You weren’t breathing so I did chest compressions with the broken arm and then the octorok attacked again,” he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. Warriors kept his eyes off of him the entire time he recounted what happened. 

“Are you fucking kidding me.” His voice was so low and steady it would’ve startled him had he not been so pissed. Warriors jumped slightly, wincing when he jolted his bad arm. “You’ve shattered your arm and you didn’t mention that? You’ve sat here and you’ve hid that for over, what, twelve fucking hours??”

How had he not noticed?? There was no way Warriors could’ve been using that arm with it in that state, how had he not seen him being careful with it?? Was he really that self absorbed that he hadn’t realized his friend was suffering??

Why hadn’t Warriors told him? He could’ve easily set his arm and helped him fix it up, did the other hero not trust him…? Or was it that he’d been so focused on him, on the fact that he’d gotten himself hurt being careless and childish chasing after animals, that he’d just ignored his own needs?

“You were dying, War…” he mumbled, his voice shaky. 

“And I’m incredibly grateful that you saved my life, I owe you more than I can ever repay you,” he said, deadly serious, “but gods fucking dammit, Link, I could’ve fucking helped you. I have not been dying this entire time, you could’ve just asked for help, that would’ve been such an easy fix and you wouldn’t have to have been sitting here in pain!! Did they not teach you why you shouldn’t hide injuries in the fucking war???” He did not give his friend a chance to actually answer that before he kept going, voice raising as he did, oblivious to how hard he was shaking. Soldiers weren’t supposed to hide injuries, how could the team succeed if one of them was struggling and the others were unaware they needed to do a little extra to keep everything balanced? If they ran into trouble he wouldn’t have known Warriors was down an arm. “I had two potions, you could’ve had some! You didn’t have to sit up all night in pain all by yourself, you’re a person, Link, not a fucking shield, you don’t need to sit there suffering just because your body will eventually heal!! I fucking care about you, I could’ve helped!!”

“H-How?” Warriors asked, using his good arm to cover his eyes as tears streamed down his face. He choked back a sob. “You… you could barely move… You…” Whatever he was about to say died in his throat as he started to cry, his entire body shaking as he did so. 

War opened his mouth to apologize but immediately started coughing, wincing as his chest burned and his head started to spin. He felt fucking awful, he should’ve kept better control of his anger and while Warriors did need to know that hiding injuries was stupid and he was upset about it, he shouldn’t have let himself get so worked up that he’d shouted at him. He’d probably scared the shit out of his poor friend by drowning and Warriors had just been trying to keep him alive and comfortable and he’d been incredibly nice to him this whole time too.

But he was just… he was furious. The other hero had to have been in excruciating pain, it was a wonder he was even able to focus on anything but the state of his arm, and War felt such extreme guilt over the fact that he hadn’t even noticed that he thought he might be sick. It was his fault for getting too close to the water in the first place and not paying attention to the fact that there’d been an octorok behind him, if he wasn’t so fucking stupid none of this would’ve happened in the first place. Warriors kept getting hurt because of him, and now he’d gone and screamed at him after all he’d done for him.

He’d made him fucking cry.

War fought to suck in air as he kept coughing because he needed to be able to speak, Warriors hadn’t stopped crying, but maybe the gods were punishing him for being an ass by forcing him to watch the effect of his words for a moment until he could finally take enough deep breaths to be able to talk. 

“I’m sorry,” he wheezed, trying to blink away the spots from his vision. To him it sounded horrible and manipulative, his old commanding officer often told him he was sorry after he’d beaten him into the dirt and he felt just as disgusting as that man was as he listened to the other hero cry. If his friend decided he wanted to scream in his face right back once he stopped, he’d deserve it. 

Warriors’ sobs quieted down but tears continued to roll down his cheeks. War wasn’t even sure he heard him until he finally looked at him for the first time since he revealed the state of his arm. His cheeks were red from crying but they were a lot more red than they should have been. 

The sun was out and he wasn’t wearing his mask. 

War looked around for it before spotting it just a short distance away. He didn’t say a word as he pushed himself to his feet, narrowly avoiding falling right back down, and he put all his effort into walking over to grab the mask before basically collapsing right in front of Warriors as he sat down.

“I should not have raised my voice at you,” he said calmly, handing his friend his mask as he fought to breathe. He meant every word and he hoped Warriors could hear the sincerity in his voice. “I’m sorry, Link.”

With a shaky hand, he took his mask back but he didn’t put it on and instead, he just held it in his lap as he tried in vain to wipe the tears off his face. The tears slowed but they didn’t stop completely. “I… Okay…”

“Thank you for saving my life,” War told him, trying to adjust how he was sitting so he could breathe easier. He really was grateful to be alive, and while he was now consumed by an overwhelming guilt, he was still upset that his friend had been hurting this whole time and had stayed silent about it. “Can I look at your arm, please? I still have half a potion and I know that won’t be enough, but if I wrap it it’ll feel a little better.” He was fairly certain there was no way in hell he was going to be able to convince Warriors to take blood from him, and he was also confident that if he did lose any blood he’d faint.

“No… I can’t…” Warriors held his arm even closer to his chest. “I’m so overwhelmed.” 

He bit his lip to keep his damn mouth shut, because apparently that was the only thing that could stop him from being cruel. He wanted to argue, he wanted to tell Warriors that he’d probably feel less overwhelmed without being in so much pain, but he wasn’t going to force his friend to do something he wasn’t comfortable with so he left it alone. He’d caused enough harm and distress already.

“Think you could put your mask on, at least?” He whispered, watching the other hero in concern. “I don’t want you to get burnt, you’re looking a little pink right now.”

Warriors used his scarf to wipe his cheeks before putting the mask on, or at least he attempted to. He couldn’t hold the mask on his face and get the strap behind his head with just one arm. “I need help,” he said quietly. 

War moved towards him slowly because he didn’t want to upset him further, definitely not also because he was worried moving too fast would cause him to fall over, and he gently grabbed the mask and secured it onto his friend’s face so it could protect his skin. 

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” War tried to keep his voice from shaking as he backed away. He needed to just stop talking, Warriors hadn’t accepted his first apology and saying he was sorry over and over and over again just to make himself feel better and ease his guilt was absolutely disgusting behavior. The deep shame he felt was something he deserved to sit with, he didn’t want to make Warriors feel like he had to forgive him for being an asshole.

“It’s okay,” he mumbled. “It’s not like you wanted to drown.” 

“No, definitely not,” he sighed, turning his head away when that triggered another coughing fit. But he should’ve been more careful. They weren’t even supposed to have taken a long break, he should’ve stayed by Warriors and watched the frog from a distance. He should’ve looked around to make sure the area was safe before he stepped further into the water. He should’ve noticed that his friend was in pain, or just asked if he was alright. 

Maybe he really was just as selfish and stupid as everyone kept telling him he was.

His eyes were watering by the time he stopped coughing, and he wasn’t sure if it was entirely from the strain the fit had put on his body or if some of the tears pooled in his eyes were from how deeply disappointed in himself he was. He had no right to be crying right now, so he tilted his chin up and tried to blink away the tears before they could fall.

“Are you feeling well enough to go?” Warriors asked. His voice was quiet but he wasn’t avoiding direct eye contact anymore. “We both need a bed.” 

“Yeah, let’s go,” he nodded, working as quickly as he could to pack up his and Warriors’s things and get his socks and boots back on before carefully getting up. It was going to be a rough day, he felt dizzy just from standing and there was an uncomfortable heat in his cheeks and on the back of his neck that he didn’t think was solely because of how ashamed of himself he was.

“Thanks for getting my things,” Warriors said as he struggled to get the glove back on his broken arm before seemingly giving up and just stuffing it into his bag. He pulled the hood off his cloak up and then pulled his scarf forward so he could hide his broken arm behind it. 

“Of course,” he mumbled, bending down to shove the bedroll and blanket into his own bag. He wasn’t sure how accepting of his help the other hero was going to be and he didn’t want to push him by asking a question if he was overwhelmed, and Warriors putting anything into his own bag with his arm like that was completely out of the question so War was fine with carrying it. Bending in half probably wasn’t the best idea, and he had to hold his breath to avoid bothering his poor lungs by squishing them, but he managed to get everything packed up and ready to go without coughing to death or falling over so he considered it fine.

He’d thought his thoughts were going to be more overwhelming, with Warriors not speaking to him he was left entirely to his own mind for company and with guilt crushing his heart he’d been sure he’d get trapped in a spiral of self loathing, but the only thing War could focus on once they got moving was putting one foot in front of the other and remembering to breathe. It was so much harder than he’d anticipated it being, his chest burned and he felt dizzy from the moment they got back on the road but he refused to be selfish and ask if he could rest for longer. There was no guarantee he’d even feel better with a little bit of rest, and he didn’t think he had much of a right to speak to Warriors anymore. He’d said quite enough.

But sheer determination wasn’t enough to combat his exhaustion and the fact that he felt like he could barely breathe, and it wasn’t long before he found himself falling behind. Warriors noticed immediately, because of course he did, he wasn’t as self centered as War was and actually paid attention to the people around him, and he slowed his pace. And that was enough for a while, walking slower didn’t put as much strain on his body, but eventually that too was more than he could handle and he found himself leaning against a tree, coughing and panting heavily. The other hero didn’t say a word to him, War didn’t blame him, but the silence made him feel horribly awkward and ashamed and he pushed himself forward as soon as he was confident he could take a step without falling over.

It became something of a pattern. He would push himself as much as he could until his legs threatened to give out on him and his vision was blurry, take five minutes to breathe, and then keep on walking in silence, every thirty minutes to an hour, until finally a little town came into sight. The promise of a bed to lay down in had him forcing himself onwards despite how much worse his cough was sounding and how genuinely worried he was that he might faint. 

“Can you get to the inn on your own? I need to leave for a bit and fix this,” he said, gesturing vaguely at his yellow and red eyes. 

Years of having to keep a straight, expressionless face in front of noblemen he hated helped him keep his expression neutral even if his heart skipped a beat and a feeling of dread washed over him. He knew Warriors didn’t want anyone noticing he was a vampire, but an overwhelming fear took over him that he’d fucked up so badly and been such an ass that his friend wasn’t going to come back. 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he forced himself to nod, ignoring that most of Warriors’s face was a bit of a blur.

“Get some rest. I’ll try to be back soon,” Warriors said with a nod, but then after a moment, he continued. “I just like to hunt alone, I don’t even let my brothers come with me. It’s when I get to uh… indulge the vampire instincts. It’s not always pretty.” 

War really wished the other hero would let him help with his arm before he went off, but he was in no condition to look at it properly and Warriors had already refused his help so he didn’t bring it up.

“Be careful,” he said softly, reaching out to put a hand on the stone wall at the entrance of the town to keep himself from tipping over in a way he prayed was super casual and not noticeable. He’d be fine, he just really needed to lay down.

“You too. Take it easy, okay?” Warriors said, concern dripping in his voice. He watched War for a moment before walking off, disappearing into the direction of the forest. 

War allowed himself just a few more seconds of rest before he headed into town and tried to find the inn as fast as possible. He’d wanted to find a doctor but he didn’t have the energy for that anymore, and it felt fair to assume that the doctor wouldn’t just magically disappear tomorrow when he’d had a chance to rest and get some of his energy back so he forced himself to the inn. The poor innkeeper looked a bit frightened at the state of him, but he assured the man that he was just exhausted and selected a room.

“I, uh… I have a friend,” he panted, leaning heavily on the counter, “he’s coming later. Blond, wears a cloak, has a scarf like mine. When he gets here could you tell him ‘Eleno’s in the room at the top of the stairs’? I’m going to bed immediately and he’s going to need a key to get in.”

The man nodded. “Of course, sir, but… Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’ll live,” War waved a hand at him before sliding over the right amount of rupees and accepting one of the two keys. “Thanks.”

He didn’t hear what else the innkeeper had to say to him, he was too busy trying to stay upright and keep his eyes open as he started up the flight of stairs. It was genuinely awful, he was gripping onto the railing like his life depended on it and about halfway up his vision became so spotty that he might as well have just closed his eyes. His lungs burned from the strain and when he finally made it he was terrified he was going to just pass out and fall right down the stairs but by the grace of the golden goddesses he managed to stumble forwards instead, practically smacking into the door as he fought to get the key in with a trembling hand. The inability to breathe was stressing him out just as much as the dizziness, but eventually he got it open and his sigh of relief turned into a brief coughing fit as he rushed inside.

The first bed wasn’t even that far from the door, just a few steps, but he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the door open behind him and he wasted the rest of his energy shutting it and dropping his bag down on the foot of the mattress. He’d had every intention of just going straight to bed, he wasn’t even going to waste time getting his boots off, but he didn’t make it two steps before his body decided he’d pushed it way too far and he was unconscious before he hit the floor.

It took longer than he would have liked to find something to kill but he eventually came across a lone dinoflos. He had to use his broken arm to hold it down while he drank its blood but he barely felt the pain as soon as he could taste blood. He took its head off with his sword and headed back. Normally, an injury and some blood made him tired and put him into a position where he could regenerate, but instead, it perked him up. It was the other potential effect blood could have on him but blood only perked him up if he drank it when he was feeling relatively alright. He didn’t expect blood to give him a little boost when his arm was shattered. 

Warriors retracted his fangs and even double checked that they were gone by running his tongue over his teeth. When he was satisfied, he headed back to the town and located the inn. He went up to the front desk but to his surprise, the innkeeper was the one to speak to him first and not the other way around. 

“Your friend, Eleno, is in the room at the top of the stairs,” the man told him, handing him a key. “And… I know it’s not my business, but he looked a little rough when he got here, is he alright?”

“He’s not feeling his best. I’ve been worried about him all day,” he admitted, taking the key with his right hand. “I’ll go check on him.”

Warriors struggled with the key, since he was trying to use his nondominant hand and he found it hard to actually get the key in the lock. He hoped he would find War laying in bed getting the rest he needed. He was looking worse and worse all day and if his arm wasn’t fucking broken, he would have carried War to town himself. He felt awful that War had to walk when he could barely breathe and he felt worse that War had to go to the inn himself since he needed blood before the cravings became dangerous. 

When he finally got the door open, his heart dropped. War didn’t make it to bed. He was laying facedown on the floor near the bed. Warriors could tell he really tried but he just didn’t have enough in him to make it. 

He rushed over to him and dropped to his knees, carefully turning him over so he was on his back. War was pale and warm to the touch, though he didn’t see any new injuries from the fall, thankfully. His fever was still low but Warriors had a feeling that it would only get worse if he didn’t do anything, though he was already feeling like he was out of his depth. Warriors knew War was feeling bad and getting worse but he didn’t expect him to get so bad so quickly. He wasn’t sure he could take care of War on his own anymore. 

Warriors took a deep breath and lifted him off the floor with the help of his vampire powers. He barely felt the pain in his broken arm as he lowered his friend onto the bed and rushed downstairs to the innkeeper, hiding his arm under his cloak and retracting his fangs as he did so. He didn’t want the man to worry about him too. 

“Is there a doctor in this town?” he asked quickly, unable to keep the alarm out of his voice. 

“There is,” the innkeeper told him, looking nervous. “Would you like me to get him…? I can see how busy he is.”

“Yes, go get him. He didn’t even make it to the bed before passing out. He’s unconscious.” 

The innkeeper’s eyes widened and he stared at him only for a brief second before running out the door. Warriors bit his lips as he watched the innkeeper run but in the meantime, he decided to go back to their room. He left the door ajar as he got to work dressing War down. He removed his boots, unpinned his scarf and pulled it out from underneath him, and got to work on the belts. War was still unconscious when he got the belts off and he was still unconscious when he worked his arms through his tunic sleeves and pulled that off too. He piled all of War’s belongings at the foot of the bed. 

Warriors’ arm decided to remind him that it was, in fact, shattered. He bit his lips and his eyes stung but he refused to let that stop from him working on getting the chainmail off. When he pulled it off and over his head, War’s eyes flew open and his breathing sped up, causing him to start coughing as he weakly tried to push himself away.

Warriors set the chainmail down but otherwise, he stayed still, not wanting to . “War, Link… It’s okay. Can you hear me?” 

The other hero flopped backwards, wheezing as he fought to catch his breath, but eventually Warriors got a slow, shaky nod.

“The innkeeper went out to get a doctor,” Warriors explained slowly. “Do you think you can stay away until he comes back?” 

What little color War had in his face quickly left and he stared at him with wide eyes. “Come here?”

“I’m assuming. You’re in no condition to go to the doctor and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I can take care of you on my own,” Warriors said with a frown as he removed his mask and set it down on the other bed. 

The other hero mumbled something he couldn’t understand, struggling to turn himself on his side as he did.

“You’re free to go to the doctor yourself if you can walk there, otherwise the doctor is coming here,” Warriors mumbled as he sat down on the other bed and tucked his broken arm under his scarf. “You might not like it but you don’t get to scare me two days in a row.” 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, giving up on trying to move himself and just going completely still on his back.

“Save the apologies for when you’re better. Right now, they don’t mean anything.” He didn’t intend to be rude but he couldn’t believe that War yelled at him when War was arguably in worse condition than he was. His arm was broken but he wasn’t fighting for breath like the other hero was. War wanted to fix his arm, and he claimed it would have been so easy, when he couldn’t even sit up on his own. He believed that War felt bad and if he had a second chance, he wouldn’t have raised his voice at all, but quite frankly, Warriors wasn’t in the mood for apologies at the moment. 

What he really needed was time alone to just think but War got worse when he left him alone, so he didn’t have that option. 

There was a sharp knock at the door followed by the innkeeper’s voice, “Sir? I have the doctor here.”

Warriors hopped out of bed and opened the door the rest of the way. “Thanks for coming,” he said quietly, keeping his left arm behind his scarf. Maybe when the doctor was done with War, there was time left to get his arm looked. It would probably ease War’s mind if it was set and put into a sling. 

“Of course,” the doctor nodded, poking his head into the room to stare at War while the nervous innkeeper mumbled something under his breath along the lines of “I’ll be downstairs” before leaving. 

“I had to pull him out of a lake yesterday and do chest compressions. He’s been coughing since, and he has a low fever now that I don’t think he had this morning,” Warriors said with a frown. “And he got shocked by something when he was underwater. We don’t know what it was.” 

War looked deeply uncomfortable when the doctor didn’t speak to him directly, but instead to Warriors when he asked his questions. “What has he had so far to help him, and I was told you found him unconscious?”

Warriors nodded. “He hasn’t been awake for long. He woke up when I was taking his chainmail off. He’s had some red potion but that’s about it.” 

The doctor frowned, looking back at the other hero who quickly turned his gaze back towards the ceiling with a small cough. “Has he been having trouble breathing?”

“Yeah, and he doesn’t have a lot of energy either,” he added. Warriors could only hope he was giving the doctor enough information to actually help him. He couldn’t help but to wonder if he did something wrong when he did the chest compressions, or if he should have made him eat more, or take more potion, or maybe he needed more sleep than he actually got.  

“I’d like to feel your ribs to check that they aren’t broken,” the doctor said as he turned to face the other hero. War immediately looked at Warriors, like he was wondering whether or not he had a choice in the matter, and he must’ve found some kind of answer on his face because he went back to staring at the ceiling with an irritated sigh after giving the smallest nod Warriors had ever seen in his life.

The doctor didn’t waste time moving closer to him, gently pressing over his ribs with a frown before he stepped away and War visibly calmed down a little. “They feel fine, so they shouldn’t be impacting his breathing.” He turned back to look at Warriors before asking, “Has he said anything about chest pain?”

“He said his chest still hurt even after he took potions and he was worried about his heart rate earlier. That was yesterday. It was kind of fast then but it seemed normal otherwise.” He couldn’t really remember if War complained about it since. The only thing he could remember clearly was how hurt he felt. Everything else was kind of fuzzy.

The doctor turned back and pressed his fingers to the side of War’s neck, causing him to completely freeze. “Hm… It is a bit fast, but that could be for a number of reasons. His breathing sounds quite crackly, how long has it been like this?”

“Pretty much after I did the chest compressions… I think that was late afternoon yesterday, so about a day, give or take a few hours. It hasn’t gotten worse but it hasn’t gotten any better either,” he mumbled, frowning at War. The other hero didn’t relax at all, even after the doctor pulled his fingers away, he just stayed there, stiff and not moving.

“Did he inhale any of the water?”

Warriors just nodded. He couldn’t believe he forgot to mention that… or any of the other things the doctor questioned him about. Warriors had been awake for a while though, maybe that had something to do with it. He supposed he should be glad that somebody seemed to know what they were doing and that he asked for help because he definitely would have failed War if he had to do it on his own. 

“That and the fever worries me,” the doctor told him, “that means possible infection. Infection might not be the only reason he has a fever but with the water he inhaled it feels the most likely answer to me. His breathing sounds like that because there’s fluid in his lungs and it’s irritating them. I don’t have anything on me right now that will help but I can run home and give you something for him that’ll reduce inflammation and help with the infection. For the next few days keep an eye on that fever, and don’t let him stay flat on his back, it makes it harder for him to breathe. Prop him up against some pillows, make sure he’s eating and drinking, and hopefully what I’m going to give him works. If he gets significantly worse or his lips and fingers start turning blue or he starts coughing blood you come get me immediately.” 

“And you’re going to come back with the medicine? If you’re coming back anyway…” Warriors moved the scarf out of the way to show the doctor his purple and swollen arm. “I broke it yesterday but we couldn’t set it.” 

“Oh sweet gods!” the doctor gasped, staring at him in horror. “How are you not in horrific pain??”

“Been too worried about my friend over there,” he mumbled with a shrug. “And maybe because I haven’t slept in a day.” 

The doctor didn’t look too happy with him, but it seemed he knew it wasn’t his place to scold a stranger on their bad sleeping habits and lack of self care. “I’ll be back with the herb blend for him and pain medication and a splint for you.”

“Thank you,” Warriors said with a small smile. He couldn’t say it out loud, but it was the first time since he got cursed that he let a regular civilian actually treat him. He doubted that the doctor would look at his arm again to notice the accelerated healing, so he felt pretty safe letting the doctor handle it. 

When the doctor left, Warriors turned to War. “I’ll be back. I’m going to see if the innkeeper has extra pillows for you,” he said, leaving before the other hero could answer. He closed the door behind him, covered his arm with his scarf, and went downstairs where he found the innkeeper back at the desk. 

“Do you have any extra pillows? The doctor says he should be propped up to make him comfortable.” 

“I do! Would you like me to bring those up for you?” the innkeeper asked. “I can also bring your friend a warm drink if he’d like, and I can bring you both up some dinner as well?”

Warriors eagerly nodded. The innkeeper didn’t know about his arm and he preferred to keep it that way, so he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to have some help. “I think some tea would do him some good. We could use some dinner, we haven’t eaten much today, so maybe something that will be easy on the stomach? If you don’t mind?”

“I can do that,” the innkeeper smiled at him. “I hope your friend will feel better soon.”

“I do too. How many nights did he pay for?” 

“Just one, and one dinner and breakfast. Would you like to extend your stay?” he asked.

“We’re probably going to need at least another two nights,” he said with a nod. “With the food.” 

“Alright, I’ll mark that down and you can pay whenever,” the innkeeper told him. “And I’ll get the food and pillows up to you as soon as I can.”

“Thank you,” Warriors said, then went back upstairs to see how War was doing. He was curled up and facing the wall and notably away from him. He wondered if War was mad that he asked for a doctor since he didn’t seem to enjoy the doctor very much but maybe he just felt better curled up like that. Warriors wasn’t going to question him on it, he didn’t have the energy to care that much. He walked into the room and left the door ajar. “You still awake?” 

He got a nod in response. Or at least he was pretty sure it was a nod and not just War shaking, because he was trembling as he laid there.

“The innkeeper will be up with pillows, something to eat, and some tea for you. I don’t know if you like tea but it seemed like you didn’t really enjoy coffee when we talked about it, so I thought tea might be better. I also asked for two more nights.” Warriors didn’t know if War was up for responding. While he was generally used to silence, it wasn’t the comfortable silence he was used to with his own brothers. 

The other hero curled in further on himself but he heard a very quiet, “Thank you.”

Apparently, it was the wrong thing to say. Or talked too much. He let out a sigh and sat down on the other bed, waiting for the innkeeper or the doctor to come back. 

“Sir?” the innkeeper called, knocking on the door. “I have those pillows for you.”

Warriors thanked him again and took the pillows with his right arm, doing his best to keep his left arm concealed as he took them. He dropped them at the foot of the War’s bed. “Can you sit up at all or do you need help with that?” he asked, trying to be as gentle as he could. He wasn’t happy with War and War might not be happy with him but that could wait until they were both well enough to talk it out. 

“Not now,” the other hero mumbled. 

“Please don’t be difficult, War. The doctor said it would help,” he said with a frown. “I need you to cooperate just a little longer and then you can pass out for a while.” 

War stopped breathing for a second before he started trying to sit up, not making it very far before he ended up falling right back down.

“If you needed help, you could have just something,” Warriors mumbled as he grabbed a pillow. “I’m just going to hold you up long enough to get the pillows underneath, okay?” He didn’t really wait for War to answer. He put his good arm under his shoulders since he knew he didn’t like his neck being held and lifted him up. With his broken arm, he organized the pillows underneath until he was happy with the angle they created before setting him back down. 

His arm throbbed and burned, despite his attempt to keep it relatively straight the whole time. Warriors was trying to be gentle with his arm and only tried to use it when he had no choice but it seemed like he had to keep using it anyway. 

“Better?” he asked quietly. Hopefully, the pain was worth it and he didn’t need to readjust the pillows. 

The other hero didn’t say anything, he just sat there shaking and while he was breathing hard, it sounded like it was easier for him to get air at least. Warriors took another deep breath and decided to just go back to waiting on his bed. He decided to just sit on the edge, since he knew that if he laid down or leaned against the wall, he would probably just fall asleep and who knows when he would wake up again? 

A quick knock at the door drew his attention. “Sorry it took so long, I have the herbs for your friend and what I need for your arm.”

Warriors stood up and let the doctor inside. “It’s fine,” he said plainly. “I got him propped up. How is he supposed to take the herbs?” 

“I recommend putting them in tea or some other drink, preferably a warm one,” the doctor told him, heading into their room and walking over to set what he’d brought on a small table towards the back. He opened up his bag to pull out a smaller one which he passed to Warriors. “That has enough doses in it for a full week, I separated each individual dose out for you, have him take it twice a day preferably around twelve hours apart. I also have for him a bottle of a healing potion, add a couple drops of it to the herbs when you give it to him and it’ll help him recover faster, it’ll heal the damages to his lungs.” He held up the bottle of red liquid before setting it down and holding up a second bottle with a clear liquid inside it. “If he’s having difficulty resting or isn’t falling asleep or seems agitated, add a few drops of this and it’ll calm him down and help him sleep easier. Both those bottles should also last the week.”

“This is a lot to remember,” he said out loud as he looked at each bottle with his good hand. “Two herbs with some red potion and then the clear stuff for when he’s cranky.” Well, War certainly seemed agitated and cranky now. Maybe he should get a bit of the clear stuff once he’s eaten and had his herbs. 

“I’ve also written it down for you here,” the doctor gave him a smile as he handed him a little slip of paper with everything he’d just told Warriors written out neatly. “Now, for you, I have something I’d like you to take before I set your arm. It’ll help with the pain and it should wear off within a few hours but I can leave some extra with you if the pain has been unbearable.”

Warrior took the slip. He could read most of it thankfully, enough to get the gist and jog his memory. He put it down beside all of the medicine War had to take. “Now what am I taking?” 

“This right here,” the doctor pulled out a much smaller bottle for him and opened it before passing it over. “Just take a small sip for now, it should start working within a couple minutes.”

Warriors took it and did as he was told, taking just a small sip before sitting it down on the table. It didn’t exactly taste pleasant but at least he got it all down. 

“Sir?” the innkeeper’s voice called from the hallway. “I have the soup and tea for you and your friend.”

“You can come in!” Warriors called out before he realized he should be quieter for War. He opened the door and hid his arm behind it. “You can set it down on the table.” 

“Of course,” the innkeeper nodded, rushing in with a tray that held two bowls of soup with little rolls of bread to eat with them and two cups of tea. It was a small struggle for the man to get the tray on the table but he managed, and then he turned to face Warriors with a smile. “I hope you enjoy! If you need anything else please let me know.”

“I will, thanks again!” he said as the innkeeper walked away. Warriors was just about to ask about the herbs since the innkeeper brought the hot drinks but then he suddenly felt something odd. It took him a second to realize that he actually wasn’t really feeling anything, more like he was feeling the sudden absence of something that he didn’t know was dragging him down. He felt a lot lighter, like a heavy weight was taken off his shoulders. He didn’t think he was in a lot of pain until he suddenly just didn’t really feel it anymore. He hummed. 

“Did it kick in?” The doctor asked him, pointing at his arm.

“I think so… feels nice,” he mumbled as he poked his broken arm. It didn’t throb like it did before. He could feel it, it just didn’t really hurt.

“Alright, sit down and I’ll take a look at it.”

Warriors nodded and sat down on his bed. He held his arm out with the palm facing down. The doctor was gentle as he grabbed it, feeling along his forearm for the break and frowning when he found multiple spots where the bone was noticeably misaligned.

“I’m feeling at least five places where your bones have broken, how in the name of the goddess have you been functioning for this long with your arm like this?” The doctor looked at him with extreme concern, digging his fingers into Warriors’s forearm to push his bones back where they should be. 

“I was trying to take care of my friend so I just tried to ignore it and I guess I kind of got used to it? I didn’t even think it was that bad until I couldn’t feel it anymore,” he said with a frown. He knew he was kind of used to being in pain since he got injured so often but he supposed he was just that focused on War that he managed to just block out a lot of it. It was only after he took the painkiller that he could understand why the doctor and War were so concerned. 

The doctor grabbed his other arm, pressing two fingers to the pulse point on his wrist. He only looked more confused by what he found, even more so when he reached to press the back of his hand to Warriors’s forehead to feel his temperature.

“Your pain tolerance is truly frightening,” the man told him, grabbing a roll of bandages so he could begin to wrap up his broken arm. “I was worried you might be in shock but you seem fine. I’ll come back to check on you and your friend within a day or two and I’ll be bringing you stronger pain medicine when I do.”

Warriors tilted his head. “Why stronger? The current dose feels pretty nice.” 

“This isn’t meant to be super long lasting,” the doctor explained, “and it’s trickier to control the dose of it because I just gave you one small bottle and told you to take a sip. I have something that will be easier for you to take consistently and reduce pain without also making you feel a little numb.”

“I guess that’s not a bad idea,” he mumbled. He doubted that this would be the last time he was injured while he was with War and it would probably ease the other hero’s mind if he had something to help with the pain. He didn’t really want to have a mystery bottle when he returned to his brothers but while he was with War, he would take it. 

The doctor worked quickly to bandage his arm, wrapping a thin piece of wood against it with a second layer of bandages to help keep his bones straight before putting his arm in a sling.

“Your body has been under a considerable amount of stress,” he told him, holding out a red potion to him, “so I don’t want you taking all of this at once, but I do want you to have a few sips now and drink the rest tomorrow evening or the next day to help that arm heal faster.”

Warriors nodded as he took and drank a mouth full before passing it back. “How much is all this going to cost?” 

“One hundred rupees,” the doctor winced. “Sorry for the price, but with the increased monsters on the roads its difficult to get supplies.”

“Oh, that’s understandable,” he mumbled as he fetched his bag with his good arm and dug out his wallet, fishing out two purple rupees and passing them to the doctor. “Thanks again for coming out.” 

“Of course,” the man smiled at him. “Come here, I’ll show you how to put together the herbs for your friend.”

The doctor walked over to the tray and grabbed one of the two cups of tea before reaching into the small bag he’d left for Warriors. He showed him the individually packed doses and took the first one out, pouring the blend into the tea before grabbing the healing potion and adding a few drops. Picking up the third bottle with the clear liquid, he paused before he added any to the tea. “Do you want to add some of this? You know your friend better than I do.”

Warriors turned and looked over at his friend. He could tell that he was quite overwhelmed and he couldn’t have slept well when he spent the whole night coughing. It felt wrong to make that decision on War’s behalf but ultimately, Warriors nodded. War deserved some restful sleep, even if he did yell at him. 

The doctor poured a small amount in and grabbed a sugar cube from the tray before adding that too and stirring the contents of the cup. “The herbs can be a little bitter, and I’d recommend giving this to him after he eats something. It should work fairly quickly.”

“I’ll see if he can eat,” Warriors said with a nod. “I think I have it from here. I’m sure you’re busy.” Besides, he thought War might calm down a little and be willing to eat if the doctor was gone. He didn’t know if there was a history that War had with doctors and while this doctor was needed, Warriors could help by making sure the doctor didn’t stay longer than he needed. 

“Remember, if his fever gets significantly worse or he starts coughing blood, come get me,” the doctor told him as he packed his things and headed for the door. “And the both of you need plenty of rest.”

Warriors nodded. They bid each other goodbye and he closed the door behind the doctor. It felt good to finally close it. The innkeeper and the doctor were super helpful but he needed a little break from visitors. He was still overwhelmed and he wanted nothing more than to sleep, but he knew they still needed to eat and War needed his medication. 

“War, the doctor is gone,” he said. “Do you want some soup?” 

The other hero hadn’t moved an inch since he’d sat him up against the pillows, he’d stayed there shaking and breathing a little too hard the entire time. He barely reacted when Warriors addressed him, but he must’ve heard him because eventually he nodded.

Warriors grabbed one of the bowls. It was still warm but it wasn’t piping hot, so it was easy for him to hold it with one hand once he managed to actually get into his hand. He wasn’t sure if War wanted a bread roll but he figured he could always bring it later if he did. 

“Did you hear what the doctor said, Eleno? Apparently I broke my arm in five places but I guess I’m not that surprised,” he said, sitting down at the edge of his War’s bed with his bowl of soup. He wanted to make sure War was somewhat present and with him so that he didn’t drop the bowl. 

War took in a shuddering breath, which to no surprise triggered a brief coughing fit, but he seemed much more present by the time he’d stopped and while his voice was quiet, he did actually speak. “No, I didn’t hear.”

“That’s alright, he was talking to me so I don’t think you could have picked everything up. He actually had to check me for shock,” he said, keeping his voice calm. “Are you ready for the soup? It also came with bread but I didn’t know if you wanted that.” 

The other hero bit his lip, he still hadn’t really looked at him but Warriors could still see his face. It seemed like he wanted to say something but ended up deciding against it, nodding instead. 

Warriors passed the bowl over slowly, making sure that War had a decent grip on it before letting it go. He let out a sigh of relief - he thought it would be more difficult to get War to eat. “Did you want the bread roll too?” 

War shook his head and slowly began to eat his soup, trying to keep his hands steady so he didn’t spill it. When he was sure that War was okay for a second, he got up and grabbed his bread roll so he could have something easy to eat until War fell asleep.

“Once you eat, you can take your medicine and then go to sleep for a while.” 

The other hero hummed in acknowledgment, pausing eating to just stare at his bowl for a moment.

“Are you done?” He wasn’t going to be fussy about how much War ended up eating. At this point, he was glad he ate anything other than cashews. 

“Don’t think I can eat more,” War mumbled with a frown. He’d had a decent amount of the soup, but he seemed upset he couldn’t stomach more. 

“It’s fine. We can try again later,” he mumbled, taking the bowl out of his hands before he could drop it and spill supper all over himself. That would have been a miserable experience for everybody and his day already had enough misery in it, he didn’t want more. Once War’s dinner was set aside to take down later, Warriors grabbed his friend’s medicine and brought it over, holding it over for the other hero to grab. Thankfully, it was also still warm, just the way the doctor wanted it. “Drink it all, then you can sleep.” 

War took the cup without protest and drank it as quickly as possible before handing it back. 

Warriors left him alone after that. He focused on eating his soup because while food wasn’t as useful to him as blood, it still helped, so he finished it quickly and drank his tea. Once he had all the dishes together, he brought it down and requested tea for the morning too before returning to their room. He settled for just sitting on his bed, trying to think about how he was going to give War his next dose - if he fell asleep now he wouldn’t wake up in time, but he didn’t think he could stay awake for another twelve hours either. 

“Link.” War’s voice was firmer and steadier than he was expecting it to be, and when he turned to look at the other hero he found him staring dead at him with a terrified look in his eyes, though the expression was weaker than War probably intended it to be because his friend was struggling to keep his eyes open and stay awake. “What did he put in the tea.”

“The medicine for your lungs, a little bit of potion, and something to help you sleep. When you’re better, you can yell at me again if you want because I told him he could add the sleep aid, but you really need the sleep,” Warriors answered simply. He didn’t see a point in lying since War was probably still kind of pissed off about his arm and the fact that he let him sleep through his shift. What was one more thing on top of those?

It took him a moment to process what he’d said to him, but the second War got it, he stared at him like he was about to cry. He looked far more hurt and scared than angry, and his breathing picking up must’ve irritated his lungs because he let out a weak cough. 

“I’m sorry, War. I didn’t like saying yes but…” Would explaining himself even help? It didn’t seem to do much for him in the morning. “I won’t put it in your next dose, I promise.” 

The other hero didn’t stare at him for much longer, his eyes rolled back and his head fell to the side as he lost his struggle to fight off the exhaustion with the medicine fully kicking in. Warriors hopped out of bed and walked over to him, double checking to make sure he was truly asleep before he headed to the window and pulled the curtains open. 

Chapter Text

“Oh, get up,” General Rodgers sighed above him, and all Link could do was continue to lay there on the ground, fighting to get enough air despite every breath sending pain through his whole body. 

His limbs felt so heavy, and it scared him that he couldn’t move because that didn’t make sense. He should still be able to move, he was sure he had a few broken ribs from how hard he’d been hit but there wasn’t anything wrong with his arms or legs. He was just stuck and he didn’t know why. Panic washed over him as he struggled, but his efforts got him nowhere.

“Quit your crying,” his commanding officer demanded, and Link felt his breath catch in his throat. He hadn’t realized, he didn’t even feel the tears on his face. He couldn’t feel much of anything. “You know I didn’t want to, I’ve already told you this. You’re just so difficult sometimes, Barclay. You don’t listen, and you talk back.”

It was hard to remember what he’d done to anger Rodgers this time around, maybe he’d been hit in the head too because he was having a hard time thinking without pain shooting through his skull. He was struggling to even remember where he was, and he couldn’t see much to help him figure it out with how his head was turned, his cheek pressed into the ground. He could just barely make out the dirt right in front of him with how his head was spinning but he couldn’t focus on it for long without feeling nauseous.

“You make me do this.”

Colors swam in front of him and he squeezed his eyes shut, but it didn’t help much because his body felt like it was being flipped upside down and he quickly became terrified that he was going to throw up.

“You just make me so angry.”

There was an uncomfortable pressure against his back, making his spine ache, and he let out a small whimper. The dull throbbing was so much more unbearable than the sharp pain in his chest but he couldn’t get his limbs to move so he could help himself, and he felt so incredibly dizzy after being left without a clue as to which way up was. Had Rodgers flipped him around?

He really hoped he hadn’t, he didn’t want him to touch him. He wanted to be left alone. 

“Look at me when I speak to you, boy.”

His eyes flew open but he couldn’t see anything, Rodgers was nowhere to be found and the only thing in front of him was a plain white wall. There were voices talking over him but he couldn’t make out what they were saying, nor could he find where they were coming from. It made him so frustrated he wanted to cry, but it was getting difficult for him to even move his eyes, let alone his face. It was like his entire body was shutting down, leaving him trapped and helpless.

“I feel weird.” It was his voice that spoke, but he hadn’t moved his mouth, and it sounded too much like it’d come from outside of his brain to have been just a loud thought. “What did you do to me?”

His vision started to go dark around the edges or was it instead that shadows grew around him, covering up the wall as they whispered, “Nothing. You’re fine.”

He didn’t feel fine, his heart was pounding in his chest and his whole body felt like it was going completely numb. Keeping his eyes open felt like the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life, and whatever was trying to drag him into unconsciousness fought hard to get him to just give up. He didn’t feel safe, no part of what the muttering voices said felt comforting to him as they tried to convince him to just close his eyes and let go.

What was happening to him…?

He was losing, he felt like he had no control over himself as his eyes started to close and he was forced to give up. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the shadow of a figure on the wall.

“War… Eleno… Medicine time.” 

He flinched as his eyes flew open, looking around wildly before his eyes landed on the only other person in the room. Warriors was much closer to him than he’d been expecting, and for a moment he was confused about what was going on before the memories from the past two days came rushing back and guilt stabbed straight through him.

“It’s about time for your next dose. This one is just the herbs and the red potion, I promise. Do you feel well enough to drink it?” Warriors asked. 

Right… Because there’d been something in the tea last time that knocked him out.

War thought he’d have been more angry about that, he’d screamed at Time for listening to a doctor and sedating him against his will before because he didn’t like feeling powerless like that. He didn’t like feeling so out of control of his own body, he didn’t like how people had used it against him before. But he couldn’t find it in himself to get mad at Warriors. The other hero had put up with so much of his shit, he’d done so much for him, and all War ever seemed to do was hurt him. He didn’t blame Warriors for drugging him so he didn’t have to deal with him.

Or the doctor for completely ignoring him and how uncomfortable he’d been in favor of just talking about him to Warriors as if War couldn’t speak for himself, as if his voice didn’t matter at all. Not that it ever seemed to, but he’d hoped that maybe his friend would’ve listened to him when he’d been overstimulated and tried to ask him for a moment… 

He didn’t really deserve to ask anything of Warriors at this point. Not after he’d hurt him.

His voice failed completely when he opened his mouth to speak, so he found himself just nodding instead. He’d drink the tea, and he wouldn’t blame the other hero if he left after giving it to him because he wouldn’t want to be around someone like him either. 

“Are you strong enough to hold it yourself?” he asked as he held it out for him. “And it’s okay if you’re still tired. We can try to have a late breakfast, or maybe lunch instead. The doctor said we need food, water, and rest but the food can wait a bit.” 

War struggled to adjust how he was sitting, the dull ache in his lower back reaching a point where he couldn’t ignore the discomfort, and his eyes widened in shock at the sheer volume of his spine popping. It hurt for a moment, but eventually it left him feeling better and since he’d been able to successfully move himself he figured he could handle holding a cup and not dumping it in his lap so he gave Warriors another nod. He handed it over, only letting go when he had a good grip on it. 

“Are you feeling better today?” he asked with a hint of a smile on his face. 

“Um…” War tried to force himself to speak, but on top of that being more difficult than it should’ve been he also wasn’t quite sure, so he started drinking his tea as he thought about his answer. 

His lungs still ached, that gods awful sound was still present whenever he took a breath, and he really hated the coughing because of how bad it hurt but he’d suffer through it if it just meant getting the shit out of his lungs. His body felt stiff and sore and he wanted to get up and move but he wasn’t sure Warriors would let him and he wasn’t even sure he physically could, and he couldn’t tell if his fever had improved at all. He just felt… gross. And overstimulated. And like a selfish, disgusting being for having screamed at his friend yesterday morning when all the other hero had ever done was be kind to him. 

He didn’t want to make Warriors wait for him to answer. He didn’t want him to get frustrated with him again, he wasn’t trying to be difficult, so he struggled to string together a sentence and push his mouth to make the right sounds even though it felt incredibly wrong and strange to do so. “I’m not sure. Less tired, because sleep.”

Warriors frowned at him for a moment before he shook his head and adopted a more neutral expression. “We’re here for two more nights, so it’s fine if you’re not feeling better right now. We have some time.” 

‘You’re keeping him from getting to his friends faster. He hasn’t seen them in an incredibly long time and this is your fault.’

War resisted the urge to violently smack his head back into the headboard to shut his own brain up because ultimately that would probably only get him yelled at, and he bit his lip as his eyes started to water. He shouldn’t have been so careless, he should’ve been paying attention to where he was walking and what was around him. He was the one who’d spotted the lake and headed towards it.

He finished his tea quickly, it tasted horrible with the medicines added to it but he wasn’t going to say a damn word about it because complaining was pointless and Warriors was probably more than fed up with what he had to say at this point. He wished he could apologize for being so horrible but last time he’d tried the other hero had told him it didn’t mean anything, and he didn’t want to be manipulative like his old commanding officer and sit there and beg for Warriors to listen to whatever he had to say for himself. He had no excuse for his behavior.

It was when he turned to hand the cup back to the other hero that he realized he hadn’t fully looked at him yet, and War couldn’t stop his eyes from widening in alarm when he saw Warriors’s burnt skin. 

The curtains were wide open, what was he doing?? Why hadn’t he shut them?? War had never been sunburnt before but it looked incredibly painful so there was no way Warriors was unaware of the state of himself.

Warriors frowned at him again, then followed his line of sight to his chest. “You won’t like the answer,” he mumbled. “I knew I would stay asleep and miss your next dose if I fell asleep like normal so I had to find a way to wake myself up. The innkeeper didn’t really like it either.” His tone was neutral, like he was talking about something that happened to be somebody else and not his own burns.

Horror and a brand new surge of guilt hit him so strongly that he couldn’t stop the tears that started rolling down his face. He wanted it to stop, he had no right to cry because all of this was his fucking fault because not only was he stupid enough to get himself injured but all that time Rodgers had spent beating him still hadn’t trained him to keep his damn mouth shut, and how dare he sit here and overreact when faced with the consequences of his own actions. He had no right to sit there and cry after he’d found a new way in which he’d hurt his friend.

“Wa- Eleno, it’s okay,” he said, sitting down on the end of his bed so that he was eye level with him. “They look worse than they are and I used to do this by accident all the time. It’s not a big deal and I don’t mind doing this for you. You… hurt my feelings the other day, but I still care about you. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t care. Please don’t beat yourself up for my decisions.” 

He needed to stop crying, he desperately needed to stop crying, and usually he’d just hold his breath for a moment to force himself to calm down before he started sobbing but with his lungs in their current condition the only thing that did was trigger a coughing fit. And he found himself doubled over trying to get it to just stop and all he managed to do successfully was make himself feel dizzier and more upset. 

Warriors placed his good hand on the bed, right beside War. He didn’t say anything but it was still an invitation. 

War was worried for a moment that he was going to be sick, he didn’t deserve comfort after fucking up this badly, and the second his body decided to have pity on him and let him stop coughing he just fell limply onto his side, fighting to catch his breath. The room was spinning and the back of his neck burned in a way that made him question if it wasn’t just the guilt he felt that was making him nauseous.

It was hard to keep track of how much time he spent laying there, shaking and trying his best to get air, but eventually it didn’t feel like such a struggle and his eyes became harder to keep open as exhaustion hit. 

“Do you need me to leave you alone for a bit?” 

He didn’t want to be left alone, but it would be selfish to ask him to stay when Warriors probably wanted a break from him and he was sure he was about to pass out anyway.

“Okay,” War croaked out, wondering if any part of that was audible as he just closed his eyes and let himself fall back asleep.

“War! Do you want some food?” Warriors was surprisingly loud. “I also have water! Just.. plain water.”

He opened his eyes in confusion, blinking at the wall until the pain registered and he let out a small whimper. Everything ached, his whole body was so, so sore and he felt so cold and he couldn’t even figure out where Warriors was because that required lifting his head to figure out and all he wanted to do was cry. Which would be justified this time, because the universe had seen him being selfish and manipulative and had decided to give him something real to cry about. 

It took him an annoyingly long time to register what had been said to him, and while he wasn’t sure he could move he found a way to mumble out, “Please.”

It took two trips for Warriors to get everything since he only had one arm he could use. He first brought food in the form of cut up fruit and cheese diced into squares. The next trip was the water in a canteen. While he set the canteen down beside him, Warrior’s gaze landed on the end of the bed. Silently, he grabbed the scarf from the end of it and awkwardly draped it across the blanket he was using. 

“I can’t believe I forgot to give your scarf back.” 

War frowned in confusion, blinking up at him as he weakly grabbed at the edge of his beloved scarf to bring it a little closer to his face. The second he’d gotten a good grip on it he felt something inside him that’d been going insane start to calm down, and he let out a shaky breath, tightening his fingers around the fabric. 

“I’m sorry, I took it off when the doctor was coming and I… just forgot it at the end of the bed. I know our scarves are special, I should have made sure you had yours last night.” 

He pulled it a little closer to himself, running his thumb along the worn embroidery at the end like he’d done so many times before whenever he was stressed or anxious or scared. It was grounding, comforting, and he felt stupid for needing his scarf to calm himself but it really did work.

“‘S okay, don’t have to ‘pologize,” his words slurred together a bit but he was happy he’d been able to speak a full sentence. 

Warriors got himself some food, then sat down near the foot of his bed. He ate a piece of cheese and then said, “We should talk about what happened yesterday.” 

“Yeah,” he nodded, taking a deep breath before doing his best to push himself upright. His back wasn’t happy with him, and his hips decided they might as well hurt too, but eventually he got himself leaning back against the pillows. It was uncomfortable as hell as he was pretty sure his left leg was going to go numb if he stayed there for too long but they did need to talk and he owed Warriors the respect of sitting up and looking him in the face.

“I’m not mad that you shouted at me… but I am still hurt by it,” he started. “I wasn’t trying to hide my arm from you. I just didn’t want to stress you out, especially since you weren’t really in any condition to actually do anything for it. I only wanted to wait until you were feeling better but I guess that didn’t work.” 

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you, shouldn’t have raised my voice. Never,” War shook his head hard, grabbing his scarf again and wishing speaking wasn’t still so hard. There was so much he needed to apologize for and he felt ill with worry that he wouldn’t be able to get his words right and he’d make things worse. “I- I didn’t mean to, ‘s not an excuse for how I treated you. I don’t… I…” 

He bit his lip and tried to get his brain to work faster, it wasn’t fair to beg for Warriors’s forgiveness but he did want the other hero to know he regretted everything. He needed him to know he was worried, and that he’d just been foolish enough to let that worry turn to anger. 

“I don’t like seeing you get hurt because of me,” War signed with slightly trembling hands, staring down at his lap. “You’ve been injured horrifically over the past two weeks because I wasn’t paying enough attention to something and I’m so, so sorry. When I saw your arm the only thing I could think about was how horribly self centered I am to have not noticed how much pain you were in earlier.” He decided that mentioning how upset he was that Warriors didn’t pay enough attention to his own injuries would be a bad idea, that conversation never ended well, so he didn’t bring that up. “I know you’ll heal, but I just… My heart hurts seeing you injured because of me because I don’t deserve that. You’ve been so incredibly selfless and kind to me and I owe you more than I can repay for saving my life. I’m sorry I’ve been so selfish and causing you pain.”

“The reason why I take all these bad hits doesn’t have anything to do with you, truly. It’s my own issue that I have to deal with. Sometimes, it just feels like that’s the best way to make use of this curse, the one silver lining I have. I’m probably not going to stop protecting you if I can,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “I also don’t think you’ve been selfish, so don’t say that about yourself. It’s impossible to pay attention to everything. If anything, I should have killed that octorok before it could hit you again.” 

“I’ve been horrible,” his voice cracked and he had to dig his nails into his forearm to stop his tears from falling again. “I’ve been- I’ve been so awful and self centered and I’m not trying to be difficult, ‘m not, I don’t want to be difficult- I don’t… I’m keeping you from getting to your friends because I’ve been fucking stupid, you don’t have to wait for me.” He looked back up at Warriors and he was sure he looked absolutely pathetic but he hoped the other hero could see how genuinely he meant that. There was no reason Warriors should be forced to wait for him, not when War was inevitably going to cause him more pain and suffering anyway, he didn’t need to be trapped here with someone who only successfully hurt him and frustrated him. 

“I’m not leaving you behind,” Warriors said firmly. “It’s Lana's fault I’m not with my brothers, not yours. Besides, I enjoy being with you. I like listening to you talk my ears off about something you’re passionate about. I dunno, talking to you is different. I’ve told you things I’ve never told my brothers. Our stories aren’t the same but it’s still nice to have somebody who understands the pressure of being in her sight. You’re not awful or self-centered. Sometimes you’re a little frustrating but I know I’ve been frustrating too.” He cradled his left arm again, though his face didn’t show any signs of pain. 

War couldn’t help but flinch at the mention of the sorceress and he pulled at his scarf until he could drag the whole thing to rest in his lap, balling it up so he had something to hold. He stared down at it for a moment, focusing on keeping his breathing steady until he dared to speak.

“…Is your arm alright?”

“It feels better with a splint in it. I will need more rest and maybe more blood before it can really start healing but the doctor gave me a potion and he’s going to give me more painkillers when he comes back.” He let his arm go and held it up for War to see. “You know though… I didn’t actually understand how much pain I was in until the pain killers kicked in and I didn’t feel it anymore. The doctor called my pain tolerance frightening. I guess I really am just used to it from taking the bad hits for my brothers or I was just good at blocking it out for a while.”

He wasn’t a fan of Warriors’s ability to push through pain like that, his friend shouldn’t be so used to it that he could do that so easily, but he was glad someone had been able to give him the care he needed. Though there was one thing Warriors mentioned that he wasn’t very happy about.

“He’s coming back…?” War asked quietly, trying to keep his expression calm but he could feel the way his brows furrowed. He didn’t want the doctor to come back, he didn’t like doctors to begin with and he’d hated how helpless he’d felt the entire time that man was in the room. He didn’t like how he’d felt pressured to let him check his ribs because he didn’t feel like he could refuse, he didn’t like how the doctor had stuck his fingers against his neck without any kind of warning, and it was the doctor who’d given Warriors the sedative and added it to the tea and told Warriors to keep him upright, which had had the other hero grabbing him and sitting him up when War had been trying so hard to calm himself down and his request for just a minute to be left alone had been very much ignored.

Everything that had happened yesterday after he’d passed out on the floor had left him so overstimulated and panicked because he hadn’t felt like he was allowed to say when things made him uncomfortable. He’d been nervous about Warriors getting upset with him so he’d been hesitant to speak up, and the one time he’d finally gathered the courage to attempt to draw a boundary he’d been called difficult. And then later drugged. He didn’t want the doctor to come back, he didn’t want to feel that helpless and weak ever again.

“Within a day or two. He wants to check my arm again and of course, see how you’re doing. He’s going to bring me the painkillers then. I’m sorry if you don’t like it but I just didn’t feel like I could help you by myself anymore,” he said with a frown. “I just didn’t know what else to do.” 

It would be selfish and rude to say anything. The doctor wasn’t just coming for him, and the man had been able to help Warriors even if what he’d given War didn’t feel like it was helping a whole lot yet. And Warriors seemed like he wasn’t annoyed or sick of him right now, so it would be the smart decision to just keep his mouth shut and not say anything because his friend had done everything he could think of to get him help and War needed to learn how to be grateful. 

“I’m sorry for doing this to you,” he gestured at himself weakly before finally reaching over to grab a small piece of cheese. “I’ve probably put you under a ridiculous amount of stress…”

“It’s been very stressful and overwhelming, I can’t deny that. I still haven’t caught up on sleep either and I would like nothing more than to pass out for a whole day again, but I can’t do that until you’re well enough to take the medicine on your own. I don’t hold it against you though. Like I said earlier, it’s not like you wanted to drown or get shocked by whatever the fuck that was. You’re forgiven,” he said with a smile. 

“…Really?” War whispered, fighting to stop the corners of his mouth from turning down as his vision started to blur with unshed tears. He didn’t know if Warriors meant specifically for him being so careless or if he meant the yelling as well, but he hadn’t been expecting either. 

“I shouldn’t have said your apology meant nothing yesterday. I just lost my patience because I couldn’t believe I got lectured when you’re the one who passed out and I’m sorry if I pushed you too far yesterday because of that. I wasn’t in the mood for it. I know you feel bad though and I appreciate your explanation, so you’re forgiven.” 

He pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes, bending forward until his elbows hit his knees so he had some support to help him stay upright while he just tried to keep his breathing steady. Some of the guilt that felt like it’d been weighing him down since yesterday morning lifted, but he still felt horrible for how he’d treated his friend and how Warriors continued to stay miserable because of him. He wanted to tell the other hero to get some sleep but he didn’t want to end up missing his next dose and making Warriors feel bad or get angry with him for it, and he wasn’t confident in his own ability to be awake or remember to take it at the right time. 

Tears fell onto his hands as he just sat there  trying to process everything, occasionally letting out a small cough when the itchy feeling in his lungs grew impossible to fight against. Warriors didn’t hate him. War hadn’t irreparably fucked this up yet. He’d just have to be extra cautious and watch his mouth, and his surroundings, and not be such a pain in the ass. The other hero was just as overwhelmed as he was, War needed to just listen and not be difficult and then he wouldn’t add even more to his friend’s stress.

“War, are you okay? Do you need your water?”

He shook his head, sniffing and taking in a shaky breath before holding it because he really didn’t want to sound pathetic and just start sobbing.

“I’ll be here if you need me then,” he said. 

It took a good few minutes for him to stop crying, he’d managed to stay mostly silent the entire time with the exception of every time he’d started coughing, and when he’d thoroughly cried himself to a point where he just felt exhausted and emotionally numb he pushed himself back to rest against the pillows. He didn’t really want to make eye contact with Warriors, he was sure he looked like absolute shit. He felt awful, his eyes were likely red from crying and he could feel the dried tears on his face, and the area around his eyes felt swollen too. 

Grabbing more cheese and popping it into his mouth took a hell of a lot more effort than it should’ve, but he forced himself to do it anyway and also managed to get a few sips of his water.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, rubbing at his poor irritated eyes. It was hard to keep them open for much longer and with Warriors not saying anything to him, he figured he could give his friend a break from dealing with him and get some more sleep, so he didn’t fight it when his eyelids started to close. 

“Sleep well,” Warriors said. 

Warriors sighed as he took War’s plate from him and once he had the dishes gathered, he took them downstairs and headed back up so he could get ready for the day. He wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep but he had to stay up so that War could get his next dose and there was another concern that he had that made it hard for him to sleep. Warriors was concerned about their finances. 

Normally, he didn’t have to worry about how many rupees they had to spend. At home, he was paid generously. On the road with his brothers, they always had things to sell if they really needed some extra funds but for the most part, Wild had more than enough rupees and Warriors got some funds from his era whenever he could. They never had to worry about not having enough rupees. 

With just the two of them though, and with no timeline for how long they were going to be together though, he was starting to stress about it. The doctor’s fee was half the rupees he had and he still had to pay for at least two more nights at the inn. At least two. They may still need more time, depending on how both of them felt. They also needed more potions that weren’t part of their treatments. 

His goal for the day was to get more rupees somehow. He only had one arm so that limited his options but once he was ready, he grabbed his wallet and left the inn. 

Warriors was so worried about getting to the inn yesterday to check on War that he didn’t explore the town much so he picked a direction and walked, thinking about how he could make his wallet heavier. He turned two corners and ended up in a weird alley where he saw a sign with a treasure chest on it, along with the word ‘game’. He never played a chest game before but he had heard about it from the others before. 

He had to admit, he was a little nervous about the prospects of gambling to get rupees. The chest game, from what he gathered, was just luck based and their luck was either really good or really bad. He could win a lot or lose a lot. 

But he could do it with one arm so he decided to give it a shot. When he walked in, he found a bored looking woman at the counter and she didn’t even bother to look up at him until he walked up to her. She didn’t even give him a chance to talk before she recited what must have been very practiced lines.

“It’s ten rupees to try. Pick a chest and if you find a key, you go to the next room. If you lose, you come back here and get a prize depending on how far you got. I will follow you to see how far you go.” 

Warriors nodded and paid. She put it away somewhere under the counter and gestured towards the door. He opened it and walked in. 

The room was empty, save for the door behind him, the locked door in front of him, and two chests sitting side by side between the two. The woman at the counter was behind him. Warriors ignored her and walked up to the chests, kneeling down in front of them. He couldn't see a difference between the two but didn’t expect to note a difference. However, he could smell iron. He couldn’t see a lock in the front, so he assumed it was a simple hinge in the back of the chests that made them open and close. He didn’t know what metal hinges were typically made of but even if they were made of iron, he doubted it was enough iron for him to smell. 

It must have been the key. 

The game was meant to be luck based but Warriors was relieved to find that it didn’t have to be. He moved between each chest and he opened the chest that smelled the most like iron. In it, he found the first key, which was surprisingly heavy and seemed rather old. It absolutely reeked of iron. The woman behind didn’t say anything and just followed him as he unlocked the first door. 

Warriors used the same strategy for the next rooms. The next room had three chests to pick from, and then he had to pick between four chests in the third room. The final room had him picking between seven chests but his nose didn’t fail him and he successfully opened the door at the end. 

“That’s the final prize,” the woman confirmed. Warriors nodded and opened it to find four purple rupees. He could hardly believe it. He picked them out of the chest and dropped them into his wallet. 

“You can play again tomorrow,” she said simply. Warriors nodded again and left the shop. 

He had about three hundred rupees now, which was more than enough to pay for the inn but it wasn’t enough for him to be comfortable so he decided to keep going and see if he could find more games to play. Just down the road, he found another game shop, this time it was a throwing game. He had ten throwing daggers to use to hit three targets with coloured rings and get as many points as he could. Being a vampire didn’t help him here but he was always good at throwing things. Warriors wasn’t the best at aiming with an arrow but for some reason, he could throw other things and his aim was surprisingly good when he did. 

Warriors didn’t typically use throwing daggers nor did he use his right arm, so he decided to risk using his broken arm. He knew if War or the doctor ever found out, he would get an earful, but the man behind the counter seemed amused at least. 

He considered his first throw to be a waste. He didn’t hit the target, though he was annoyingly close. The second time, he tried to put more spin on the dagger when he threw it and while he hit the target, it was on the outermost ring, the one that gave the fewest amount of points. The third dagger was closer than the first two but he still didn’t hit the middle of any of them. He did feel like he was getting a better grasp on it though. 

“Gotta say, not too bad for somebody with their arm in a cast,” the shopkeeper said. “I’m surprised you’re trying at all.” 

“I like throwing things,” Warriors mumbled in response as he took a deep breath and threw his fourth dagger. Again, not in the middle, but he hit the ring that gave the second most points. 

“How did you break your arm anyway?” the shopkeeper asked as Warriors threw dagger number five. That one hit the middle. 

“Monsters,” he answered. “I’m a swordsman who travels. Sometimes, the monsters get a lucky hit.” 

“Ah, I’ve heard of them running around lately. I haven’t heard of them running into town or anything but I hear the roads are bad lately. You’re lucky it’s just your arm.” 

Warriors frowned as he threw another dagger, hitting the middle of another target. He was lucky and relatively hardly but War wasn’t as lucky and now he was paying the price. He didn’t take what the shopkeeper said personally though - it wasn’t like he knew. 

“Definitely could have been a lot worse,” he said simply. War could have died. He could have been killed by the dark shape that shocked him, or he could have drowned because Warriors took long to find him or resuscitate him. War was still in a bad way but it could have been worse. 

He had four daggers left. He buried one near the middle of the third target, which annoyed him because he wasn’t sure he could get another dagger into the middle of that one. 

“Are you staying here until your arm heals?” 

“Probably not, even with the monsters around. I’ll be fine,” Warriors answered. “I don’t have time for it.” 

Before the shopkeeper could respond, he threw the last three daggers. 

“That puts you in the one hundred rupees range!” That wasn’t too bad for the twenty rupees he spent to play the game. It wasn’t as high of a payout as the other game but maybe people, on average, did better at the throwing game then the lucky chest game. “You want to try again with a different set? I’ve got throwing stars too. I don’t know if it’ll be better on your arm but you don’t have to lift your arm up.” 

“Stars sound interesting!”

Warriors might have spent too much time at the throwing gallery, switching between daggers and stars, and talking to the shopkeeper. He learned that the game shop had been in the family for three generations now and that he was also really good at throwing the daggers since he played for free as a kid. He would have stayed longer if it wasn’t for the fact that his arm suddenly ached so badly that he dropped the dagger he was about to throw. 

“That looks bad. How about I refund you for that game and you go get some rest?” 

He had four more daggers to throw but he decided to just nod and accept the refund. He bid the shopkeeper goodbye and headed back to the inn, paying what he owed for the two more nights and asking for lunch before going up to his room. 

War didn’t move the entire time he was gone. He was still pale and despite the sleep aid and the extra sleep, he had dark shadows under his eyes. He looked rough but not necessarily worse. Just not better. His eyes were open but Warriors doubted that War was really present. 

“You awake?” he asked, closing the curtains so that there was still some light in the room but not enough sunlight that he was in danger of getting more burns when he didn’t need the extra burns.

War let out a sleepy hum and his eyes scanned the room until they found him. “I think so, yeah.”

“I asked the innkeeper for lunch so it should be soon if you’re hungry,” Warriors offered as he sat down on his own bed and took his boots off. 

“Oh okay,” the other hero blinked, seeming much more awake. “…Would you maybe be able to help me stand up for a minute after lunch? I need to get off my back, it's feeling really sore.”

“Sure, I can do that.” He didn’t think War was asking for anything unreasonable. He’s been stuck in bed before too and he understood the desire to just get up and stretch for a bit. As long as War took it easy while he was up, it couldn’t be hard on him if Warriors was there to make sure he got back in bed alright. 

“Thanks,” War sighed, trying to push himself up a little to feel more comfortable in the meantime. “Were you able to get any rest while I was asleep…? You were saying you’ve been really overwhelmed.”

“I played games,” he answered. War didn’t know that he played a throwing game or cheated at a lucky based game. “I didn’t sleep but I got us a lot more rupees so we can stay for as long as we need.”

“Oh really?” The other hero looked at him in surprise. “How much were you able to get from that?”

“Like… five hundred? Something like that? I lost count.” 

War’s eyes widened in shock and his jaw dropped a little. “Gods above?? What kind of games did they have you doing for a prize like that??”

“There was a lucky treasure chest game that I won but they didn’t let me play it again after that and then there was a dagger throwing game that I got good at, so I kept playing that instead. You might like it,” he said with a shrug. “Are you starting to feel better?”

“It’s hard to tell…” War sighed, running his thumb over the edge of his scarf. “My chest still aches and I keep getting this horrible itch like I’m about to start coughing, and admittedly I should just- let that happen. I can feel all the shit I need to cough up. And honestly I just feel fucking gross, though I think part of that is that I haven’t eaten a whole lot.” He paused to cough hard into his elbow a few times before letting his head fall back with a groan. “But I do feel better because I’m not as tired and overstimulated as I was, and… I do also feel a bit better emotionally.” There was a guilty, pained expression on his face as he said those last few words quietly, and he bit his lip before raising his head up to look at Warriors with the most neutral expression he could manage. 

“I can try and find more fruit later if you think it would help. I know you have some dried fruit but some fresh fruit would also be hydrating,” Warriors offered. “Other than apricots and oranges, is there anything else I should keep an eye out for?” 

“I’ll be so honest with you right now, I could eat anything,” the other hero told him, staring at him with huge eyes. “I’m not really that nauseous anymore, I mean I kind of am but I’m confident that’s because of my blood sugar, but I’m really just hungry I think- I, um, I don’t react well with spicy foods, I don’t like how they make my mouth feel, but other than that I don’t think I’d call myself that picky. I trust you to not give me something that’ll kill me so genuinely I don’t mind.”

“Oh don’t worry, I don’t like spicy food either. It makes my mouth feel like it’s burning and fire can kill vampires so it kind of freaks me out.” Warriors was glad to hear that his friend had an appetite though because it was finally starting to feel like War’s health was heading back in the right direction. He had the funds to buy plenty of snacks and fruits so maybe he would head back out when War was napping again. 

Before he could say more, there was a knock on the door. 

“Sir?” the innkeeper called. “I have your lunch ready!”

“You can bring it in!” Warriors called back as he made some more room on their little table by putting a couple of the extra bottles away. He didn’t think War needed the sedative after the first time so that went into Warriors’ bag, along with the extra potion bottle that Warriors was supposed to take later in the evening. The things War still needed - the herbs, the potion, and the sugarcubes - were the only things left on the table. 

“…Could you get the door, sir?” the innkeeper asked quietly. “I can’t quite get the handle, my apologies.”

Warriors nodded, though it wasn’t like the innkeeper could see that, and opened the door wide for him. “Sorry,” he said quickly as he walked in. 

“No worries!” The young man laughed, carrying the tray towards the table so he could set it down, and when he turned to leave he caught a glimpse of War and smiled. “Oh! How are you feeling, sir? You look much better.”

War gave him a small wave. “I’ll be alright, thank you for everything.”

“We’ll need more tea with dinner so he keeps getting better,” Warriors said as he put his good hand on the side of the soup bowls to see how warm they were. “Thanks for everything so far though. Sorry for scaring you so much.” 

“It’s alright, sir! I’m glad I can help,” the innkeeper said with a smile, heading towards the door. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you!”

“Of course,” Warriors said as the innkeeper closed the door behind him. “War, do you want to eat at the table? You wanted to get out of bed anyway, right?” 

“If that’s not too much trouble…?” the other hero said quietly. 

Warriors pulled one of the chairs out so that it was easier for War to get in before he walked over to the bed. “How much help do you need? Can you move your legs? Just trying to figure out how to get you up.” 

“I’m a little dizzy and I’m mainly just worried about falling down,” War mumbled, slowly pushing himself to sit up straight and away from the pillows before throwing the blankets off himself so he could turn sideways and swing his legs off the mattress. He took a moment to adjust to the change and just breathe, staring down at his lap. “…I think I need help with the standing part.”

“Right,” Warriors mumbled as he held his right arm out for War to grab. “I pull you to your feet and then get behind you once you’re up, okay?” 

“Okay,” he nodded, taking a deep breath before grabbing on to Warriors’s hand. Warriors summoned his fangs and pulled him up while also using his powers to anchor him to the floor. It was the first time he used the wall crawl to stay on the floor but he didn’t want to risk making War too dizzy if he ended up stumbling to correct himself. He pulled his right hand out of War’s hand and moved it to his shoulder to better stabilize him.

War quickly grabbed onto his good arm with both hands, looking a little panicked when his left knee started shaking, threatening to give out on him, but he managed to stay upright and after a second of just standing there he whispered, “Sorry. I think I’m good now,” and loosened his grip, letting one of his hands fall down at his side.

“It’s fine,” Warriors mumbled as they started walking towards the table. His first steps were a bit shaky but by the time they got to the table and into the chair, Warriors didn’t have to help him out as much. He still made sure he wasn’t in a position to fall but War was starting to walk on his own. Once War was seated, Warriors took the other chair and dug into his own soup. It was awkward to eat with right hand but his left arm was beginning to hurt again and he really didn’t want to push it. 

“Thanks,” the other hero said quietly, twisting and stretching a bit before reaching for his bowl.

“Do you think you might be well enough to mix the herbs on your own for dinner? I can show you how to do it but it really isn’t hard,” Warriors mumbled when his eyes fell on the bag full of herbs.

“Yeah, I can manage,” War nodded. “You should, uh… You should maybe get some rest after lunch. I think I’ll be able to handle myself, so.”

“I will when I get some fruit for you to enjoy later,” he mumbled. He really did want sleep but he also wanted to make sure that War could get up and mix his own herbs first. Warriors couldn’t truly relax until he knew that War was actually well enough to take care of himself. He should also try to find some more blood but he wasn’t entirely confident that he could and War wasn’t any condition to give him any. 

“I have my snacks still,” the other hero told him, keeping his tone soft and gentle almost as if he were nervous to be speaking, “and I’m not really used to eating a full sized lunch like this so I think between this and dinner I’ll have plenty of food for today.”

“I’ll consider it. If I’m honest, I’m not sure I can relax until I know you can take care of yourself. If I actually fall asleep, I’m not sure when I’ll wake up and if you really need something, I'm not sure if you could wake me up,” he said with a frown. 

“I’m sorry,” War whispered, staring down at his soup. 

“Don’t fret about it. If you can make your tea at dinner, then I think I can sleep. It’s only a few more hours. I can make it.” 

“If you tell me how to do it now I can make it at dinner by myself,” War mumbled, stirring around his soup as he continued to just stare at it.

Warriors couldn’t tell if he wasn’t eating because he was full, if there was something about the soup itself that he didn’t like, or if War was upset with his answer. The other hero had to be shown either way though, so he simply nodded. After making sure his spoon wouldn’t fall into his soup, he grabbed the little bag that the herbs were in. “This bag has each dose individually packaged, so you put the whole thing into your tea along with a sugar cube since they might taste a little bad,” he said, holding up one of the little packages for War to see. “Then you just add some red potion to it. You probably could have figured it out, I guess." 

“Like a couple drops or like a spoonful or does it matter?” War raised an eyebrow, finally starting to eat.

“A couple of drops but I don’t think it really matters if you don’t mind the taste,” he mumbled as he put the package back into the bag and put the bag back on the table so he could finish his soup. “I don’t think you need it or even really want it but I also have the sedative in my bag if you’re having a hard time sleeping.”

“No,” the other hero said quickly in a firm tone before awkwardly clearing his throat, triggering a small coughing fit, and saying in a much softer voice, “I- I don’t think I need it, but thank you.”

“I fucked up getting the doctor involved, didn’t I?” he asked before he could think it through and stop himself. War did look uncomfortable the whole time and he looked horrified when Warriors admitted that to the fact that the first cup of tea had something to help him sleep. He did it all to help War but he couldn’t help but to wonder if War would have reacted better if he tried to help him on his own. 

“I was planning on going to the doctor, I was just too tired to deal with it yesterday and I hadn’t really exactly just how much I’d pushed myself until I realized I’d passed out on the floor,” War mumbled, anxiously rubbing at his collarbone. “You made the right call getting him.”

“I haven’t felt like I did anything right,” Warriors mumbled as he finished his soup. “I don’t know if I did the chest compressions right, or if I should have let you go on your own, or maybe I should have let you sleep longer and not push you to get to town…” 

“The only reason I’m alive right now is because of you,” his friend told him, lifting his gaze to look at him. “You’ve literally saved my life, Link. Chest compressions aren’t even guaranteed to work, we do them just in case they do but there’s never a promise they will, so you must’ve done them right since I’m sitting here. And I wanted to get to town and rest, I pushed myself too hard and I failed to recognize my own limits and that’s my fault, not yours.”

Warriors couldn’t help but to frown. War was telling him that he did everything right but the doubt he felt for the last two days didn’t ease at all. Even showing War how to do his medicine didn’t even make him feel that much better. He felt like he needed to keep doing more. Maybe if he got the sleep that he knew he needed, it would ease up a bit.. 

He decided not to wait for War to finish his soup since he could always take the dishes down later when he knew the other hero was done eating. He grabbed his bag, made sure his wallet was inside, and headed towards the door. 

“I’ll be back,” he mumbled as he left. War told him he didn’t need to buy fruit but he still felt like he had to do something useful. Warriors still felt like he fucked up somehow and he could also use some space to just… let War’s words sink in. The fact that his arm still hurt didn’t help anything either but without anything else to really focus on, it was really starting to make him feel a little unwell.

While he was looking for the fruit to buy, Warriors found a butcher’s shop. Warriors was scared of going in and asking if they still had any of the blood but he also didn’t have much of a choice. He needed the blood, not just for his arm but also for the burns on his chest. He didn’t pay much attention to anything that was inside of the shop except for the fact that it somehow was quite cold inside even by his standards but thankfully, he didn’t really have to focus on anything else. 

“Are you looking for anything?” a petite woman asked. 

“Uh… blood.” 

“One moment,” she said quickly before going to the back and through a door. He was shocked when she returned holding two jars of blood. “Trying to make your own black pudding, are you?”

“Yeah,” he said, perhaps too eagerly. Sometimes, Wild experimented with what he could do with blood and he was getting really good at incorporating blood into cakes, but he didn’t know that regular people also consumed blood in some way. 

“We got more if you decide you like it. Tourists don’t usually come back for more but they’re always willing to try it at least once. Do you want both?” 

He simply nodded and paid. He quickly went into an alleyway and once he was sure he was alone, he drank both bottles as quickly as he could. It was too cold for his liking but blood was blood and he couldn’t really complain about the fact that he bought blood. From a store. 

However, unlike last time, it didn’t give him a little boost. The minute he put the bottles in his bag, a wave of drowsiness washed over him so suddenly that he had to sit down in the alley for a moment. When it didn’t go away, he summoned his fangs and shoved his hand into his mouth, biting down on it hard enough to draw blood. Thankfully, the pain was enough to jolt him awake and he retracted them as he hopped back to his feet. The fruit could wait afterall. He had to get back to the inn so that he didn’t stress out War and ruin the progress he made. 

By the time he got back to the inn and up to their room, he could barely keep his eyes open anymore. Warriors closed the door behind him and collapsed into his bed. He didn’t get his head on the pillow, his boots were still on, and his broken arm was trapped under his body but he didn’t have enough energy to care anymore. As soon as his body hit the bed, he was out.

Chapter Text

War lowered his head to the table with a low groan when Warriors shut the door behind him. He’d failed to make his friend feel better, which really shouldn’t have come as such a shock to him considering he practically fucked up any time he opened his mouth. It was his fault he’d made the other hero feel like this in the first place, and while he really wished Warriors would’ve just stayed in and rested, maybe the space from being around him would do him some good.

When he finished his soup, he gently pushed the chair away from the table and stood up, relieved when he managed to do it himself without stumbling. He wished he could’ve brought the dishes down to the kind innkeeper but he didn’t trust himself on the stairs so instead he neatly stacked them all on the tray to make it easier for the man.

He didn’t want to keep being the reason everything was so difficult.

However his body wasn’t too happy with him for moving around so much after so long of laying around, and he soon found himself feeling a bit dizzy and warm so he went over to the window and opened it, letting the cool breeze come in. It felt so wonderful that his eyes started to close, and he made an effort to drag the chair over to the window so he could enjoy the fresh air. War hated feeling so hot, it was hard for his body to regulate its temperature and cool down because of the large portion of his burn scar that couldn’t sweat, so he just had to sit there with his head resting against the window sill and beg the gods that the breeze would cool him down.

He’d lost track of time, he had no idea how long he’d sat there, but Warriors reentering the room startled him and he sat bolt upright when he heard the door open.

“Are you alright?” he asked, watching as the other hero headed straight for his bed after summoning the energy to shut the door behind him.

War was completely ignored, his friend just flopped onto his bed and went completely limp.

Quickly, he closed the window and shut the curtains to keep the sunlight away from Warriors before he pushed himself out of his chair with shaking arms and headed over to him. It took a great deal of effort to roll him over, War had to stop and catch his breath more than once and it made him upset because, yes the other hero was bigger than him, but War was used to sparring with Twilight and twisting him to the ground. He shouldn’t have struggled as much as he did and it made him feel upset about how weak he’d gotten in two days, but eventually he did get Warriors onto his back and into a somewhat comfortable position on the mattress. 

“You really should’ve just stayed here,” War sighed as he worked Warriors’s boots off, knowing damn well his friend couldn’t hear him. 

Now that the other hero was on his back War could see how his face looked a little pink, burnt from the sun because he hadn’t worn his mask when he’d gone out, and he bit his lip as his guilt grew heavier in his chest. He knew he was frustrating, and Warriors had told him so himself, but gods he was disgusted with himself for being so irritating to the point where his friend had gotten hurt trying to get a break from him. At least Warriors would be able to rest now. And knowing the other hero and how long he slept for, maybe by the time he woke up War could be well enough to leave and explore the town and give him more peace.

He’d done as much as he could to make his friend comfortable before his vision started getting spotty and he had to go lay down on his own bed, curling up into a ball with a groan because his whole body ached and he felt like shit and it was really nobody’s fault but his. 

War found it hard to get any real sleep that afternoon, he kept drifting in and out of consciousness before being woken up by his own harsh coughing, but maybe that was for the best because then he was up and aware enough to put his medicine in his tea and drink it when the kind innkeeper came to bring him and Warriors dinner. He had the man leave some extra bread because he didn’t have to worry about that going bad in case Warriors did wake up and want something, but his friend showed no signs of stirring and once he’d eaten his own food and drank every last drop of the frankly awful tasting tea, he let himself attempt to get some real sleep. Though after about an hour of tossing and turning and trying not to whine because of how hot he felt, he gave up and accepted the fact that he was going to be up staring at the wall all night.

His head was killing him when the innkeeper knocked for breakfast and he was sure he looked like absolute shit when he opened the door for him but the young man was polite enough to just gasp at him in alarm and not actually say anything. He chugged the tea to get it over with, the taste really was so horrendous it made him gag, and he got about three grapes from the small fruit bowl he’d been brought into his mouth before his body realized it needed sleep more than it was annoyed by his fever and he crashed, falling asleep at the little table. 

“War? War, where the fuck are you?” 

He sat up with a confused hum, letting out a small whimper when his back and neck cracked and his stiff muscles screamed at the movement. 

“What time is it?” Warriors asked, his voice a bit louder now. 

War looked around for him for all of two seconds before his throbbing headache had him lowering his face back down to the nice cool table. He managed to croak out a, “Dunno,” letting his burning, dry eyes slide closed again. 

Warriors let out a deep sigh. “I guess I’ll go back out then. I never got your fruit,” the other heroes said as War heard his bedsheets rustle. 

“Y’ don’t have t’ do that,” his words slurred together and he let out a weak cough before mumbling, “Had fruit. Food. Breakfast.”

“I’ll feel fucking useless if I don’t,” he answered. War could hear footsteps come up beside him and stop. “Let’s get you back to bed first. The table can’t be uncomfortable.”

“Everything hurts,” War admitted with a groan, trying to open his eyes but they felt so dry he had to squint to be able to see in a way that was anywhere near close to tolerable. 

 “The table is not the most supportive thing you can sleep on,” Warriors mumbled. “I’m going to help you get back to bed, okay?” 

“‘Kay,” he sighed, trying to be helpful and sit himself up a little. He felt Warriors pull him up from the chair using both arms and he heard Warriors swear to himself as he gave War a chance to get his legs underneath himself. Frowning, his tired brain put together that his friend had used his broken arm and he whispered, “You okay?”

“Are you okay? Your temperature is high. No, we’ll get to bed first and then I’ll get something for your fever. Can you walk?” 

“Think so,” his voice sounded a little rough as he tried to hold in a cough, but he successfully took a step forwards without collapsing to the ground. War let the other hero walk him back to his bed, making sure he didn’t tip over and fall down, and once he reached the mattress he flopped down and stopped trying so hard to hold back his cough. The force of it hurt but everything hurt from sleeping for gods knew how many hours at that table and he was truly too tired to whine or cry about it so he just laid there pathetically on his side for a moment and caught his breath. 

“How much sleep have you been getting?” Warriors asked. “I know you didn’t want the sedative but if you can’t sleep because your fever is too high…” 

His heart started pounding in his chest and his eyes flew wide open. “No.” He didn’t want it, he hated feeling so out of control of himself he hated things that made him feel weird like that, he didn’t want to feel that again. He’d never wanted to feel that ever again he hated it. War fought very hard to keep his voice even but he couldn’t stop it from shaking a little as he mumbled, “You promised.”

“It was just a suggestion. I wasn’t going to do it if you didn’t want to,” Warriors said calmly but War could tell there was an effort to keep it that way. Without saying anything more, he left the room. 

War curled up into a ball, raising both hands to grip tightly at the roots of his hair. He needed to stop talking, he needed to stop being so difficult. Warriors had just told him how helpless he’d been feeling and all War had done was frustrate him and get him injured. 

He needed to get over himself. Maybe he should just take the damn sedative, it would genuinely help him sleep and it’d help Warriors not worry about him so much even though War would genuinely rather hit himself in the head with a rock to knock himself unconscious. If it would make Warriors less frustrated with him… maybe he could put up with the panic attack he’d most definitely have for the five minutes he’d be conscious before the sedative kicked in.

Warriors returned after a few minutes. “Careful, don’t pull your hair out,” he said quietly. “Can you roll onto your back? I got a cool cloth, it might help the fever.” 

It took him a moment but he managed to untangle his fingers from his hair and straighten himself out before shifting around so he could lay back against the pillows. Warriors carefully pushed his hair off his forehead and added the cloth before letting his hair fall back down. 

“What do you have against the sleep aid?” Warriors asked as he went and sat down on his own bed. “And of course, when I get some sleep, your condition gets worse. Why am I so bad at this?” 

“I’ll take it,” War said extremely quickly before he could lose his nerve. He was spending most of his energy trying to keep his breathing even and he grabbed the edge of his scarf with one hand so he could run his thumb over the embroidery to help keep himself calm. “It’s not your fault, you’re not bad at this, it- it’s me. I couldn’t really sleep last night, that’s my fault.”

Warriors got up and fetched it out of his bag. “Are you sure you actually want it? You just told me a few minutes ago that you didn’t want it. What made you change your mind?” 

He really needed to just be honest and tell him the fucking truth but he wasn’t trying to be so frustrating and ungrateful and such a pain in the ass to care for. Warriors should be able to rest and heal and find his friends without spending so much time worrying over him and getting mad at him because he was being stubborn and ridiculous. If he was asleep and resting, Warriors couldn’t blame himself for him getting worse.

But when he actually saw the bottle in his friend's hand, any ounce of determination he had withered away completely and he felt so terrified he was scared he might actually throw up. Some fucking hero of courage he was. 

Tears welled up in his eyes and he covered his face with his hands as he shook his head pathetically. If Warriors yelled at him or left again he didn’t even think he’d be able to find it in himself to get upset about it, because if he had to put up with someone as frustrating and demanding and stubborn as himself he would’ve lost his mind days ago.

“Look, I just want to work with you. I can’t do that if I don’t know what you actually want. Last time with the doctor, you couldn’t speak for yourself because you weren’t in the condition for that. You have a little time to say something now before the doctor comes. We can work with the doctor to treat you within your preferences if I know what the fuck they are. I’m sure the doctor will work with us if we’re upfront and reasonable about it but I can’t help you if I don’t know. I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do but you need to tell me what to do instead because I don’t fucking know anymore!” Warriors didn’t shout or raise his voice much but War could still hear all the frustration he must have been feeling for the last two days. 

“I’m sorry,” he managed to get out between small gasps for air as he tried really hard not to start sobbing. It pissed him off that he couldn’t pull himself together, and it was probably because of how sick and miserable and overstimulated he was that he so fucking sensitive but he truly felt nauseous over the idea of the sedative and he was so angry with himself for fucking up again. He’d just wanted to not stress out his friend anymore, but that didn’t seem to be the right option because now Warriors was upset with him anyway. 

“I’ll give you a couple of minutes but I think the doctor will probably come today and if you can’t speak for yourself, then I need to know what you want and how to actually help you,” Warriors mumbled before going to sit back on his on his own bed and stuffing the bottle back in his bag. 

“I don’t want it, I don’t want it. I don’t want any kind of mind altering anything that’s going to make it feel like I have no control over my body, don’t let him give me anything like that, please,” War gasped, not moving his hands from over his eyes. He was so tired he didn’t think he was really making that much sense but if Warriors was actually going to listen to him… He needed to try. “I don’t want to be difficult, I’m not trying to be stubborn, I’m sorry. I wanted to be able to sleep all night, I want to get better so we can get out of here but I- I can’t do the sedative, I can’t do it.”

“What made it hard for you to sleep last night? The fever?” Warriors asked. 

He nodded, finally letting his arms fall to rest at his sides but he couldn’t bring himself to fully look over at his friend because if he saw even the slightest hint of annoyance on the other hero’s face right now he was confident he’d just completely break down. “And my back is just sore from spending so much time laying down.”

“Are you okay with painkillers or do you find that mind altering?” he asked again, his voice completely neutral. 

“Those are fine,” War sucked in a shaky breath, sniffing and trying to wipe his eyes. “I’m sorry, I know the sedatives would help but I just can’t.”

“It’s fine that you don’t like sedatives,” he said, pausing to drink something red from a bottle. “I just needed to know what would you take without an issue instead. He’s bringing painkillers and we can ask for something that can just reduce the fever.” 

“As long as it doesn’t make me feel loopy or numb or like I can’t move, I don’t care,” he whispered, pulling his scarf over himself when he suddenly felt cold. 

The headache he’d woken up with hadn’t left him alone, only made worse by his crying, and he found himself really missing Sky, because it was usually Sky who was with him whenever he got so ill a doctor had to be involved. Time was usually there too, and he missed his little brother so very much, but Time got overwhelmed quite easily and didn’t often possess the ability to calm War down and communicate with the doctor at the same time. His brother was always gentle with him when he was struggling, but it was also difficult for War to let Time take care of him sometimes because he was so used to pushing through discomfort and putting on a smile for the kid during the war that it felt strange admitting when things really bothered him. 

But there was just something different about Sky, who somehow always saw straight through his bullshit and recognized when he was too overwhelmed and needed help. There was just something about the gentle, quiet way Sky spoke to him and explained things to him that made the entire situation less overwhelming, and he stayed close to him and held him if he needed it. Sky gave him choices in a way that really didn’t give him choices at all, but the illusion that he had control over the situation created just through letting him get to pick something calmed him down and made him much more ‘tolerable’, in Legend’s words, and stopped whatever doctor had come to see him from strangling him in frustration when he refused to cooperate. He found it hard to think and communicate when he got so stressed and he had such a fear and mistrust of doctors that he struggled to function around them in situations where he felt like he had the disadvantage, but having Sky there with him felt safe.

He didn’t know how to explain what he needed to Warriors because he didn’t know how to put into words what Sky did for him and how helpful it was, he was so fucking tired and he felt awful and he worried he wasn’t even making sense.

“We’ll make sure the doctor knows then. We’ll figure it out,” Warriors said. “I wish I knew earlier though. I thought you needed it, and it was in your best interest. I’m sorry.” 

War nodded, sniffing and trying to get his breathing to stay even. He felt so fucking pathetic, he hadn’t wanted to make everything so hard or make Warriors so frustrated with him.

“Is there something about doctors you don’t like?” Warriors didn’t leave but he seemed to have a hard time looking at him. “You didn’t seem happy that he was on his way, and that was before you met him.” 

“I don’t…” He started slowly, unsure how much the other hero would want to actually hear and unsure how much he actually wanted to say. “I… It feels easier when I go to them. Because I can leave, and then it doesn’t feel like they are in my space, if that makes sense. I don’t really… It’s…” War let out a frustrated grumble. “I don’t like him specifically either.”

Warriors opened his mouth, then seemed to change his mind. He pulled his legs up so that he was sitting with his legs crossed on the bed and the bedsheets were suddenly very interesting. “I’m sorry.” 

“I don’t like being in situations where I feel like I won’t be listened to or like I can’t speak up for myself,” he mumbled, absent-mindedly scratching at his arm. “I don’t… I don’t like not having a say in things that happen to me, I don’t like when- I don’t like it when people make decisions about me for me.” War bit his lip for a moment and rubbed at his eyes again. 

He knew he couldn’t remember a great deal of the actual memories that had left him with such strong fears, and that was just as frustrating as feeling so useless over things that anyone else would consider easy or not hard to deal with, but there were very few people he’d actually explained his discomfort to. Very few people he trusted enough to try to force himself to put it into words so they could better understand why he acted so ridiculous. He knew he and Warriors had very different lives even if they shared similar experiences and clearly this must be something unique to him if the other hero wasn’t understanding why he was so upset, or maybe it was just further proof that War really was just a difficult, pathetic person who was so troubled by shit he could barely remember. His friend had seemed so upset with his inability to speak about what was bothering him, though he didn’t seem exactly thrilled that War was forcing himself to talk about it now, so he found himself trying to explain in the most simple way possible what exactly he’d hated so much.

“I didn’t like how he acted like I wasn’t there,” he found the courage to whisper. He was too tired to care so much about how thoroughly he was probably embarrassing himself by acting like a child, but his heart rate was still a little too fast because he was worried about how his friend would react. “I didn’t like how he ignored me, and I don’t like when strangers touch me without asking. He… I didn’t like him touching my neck.”

“I’m truly sorry. I thought- Well, I guess what I thought or intended doesn’t really matter if it made you so upset anyway. I noticed that you were upset but I didn’t put everything together,” he answered, his voice shaky. His gaze remained glued to the bedsheets for a moment before he looked up and faced War. “But I’ll be here when the doctor comes again and if you need help, I will do my best. I can’t promise that I won’t fuck up again but I can promise that I will do my best.”

“Thank you,” War sniffed, wishing he could turn on his side and curl up into a more comfortable position but he didn’t want the cool cloth on his forehead to fall off and make his friend feel worse, so he settled for just tightly holding onto his scarf and wrapping his arms around himself. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for. It should have been kind of obvious that it was making you uncomfortable,” he mumbled with a sigh. He tried to settle his head into his fist before he hissed in pain and jolted up right again, so he settled for leaning against the wall. “I’m fine,” added. 

“Is your arm still hurting you badly?” War asked, coughing into his elbow with a grimace. 

“It wasn’t that bad for a while but it hurts a lot now, even after I took that right potion not too long ago. I also had blood recently. There’s just… a store that sells it? It should be healing but I don’t think it is,” he said, holding it up so he could glare at it. 

“It’s not healing…?” He blinked, feeling his heart skip a beat. “Is there something wrong with it? Has it ever not healed before?”

“It will heal, it’s just taking longer than usual,” Warriors mumbled, settling his arm down on his lap. “I keep accidentally using it, which doesn’t help at all. I think I just need more sleep. I wouldn’t be using it and well, you know how much sleep I need when I’m regenerating. I haven’t been getting a lot of it lately.” 

War bit his lip and turned his face away because he was starting to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of times Warriors had seen him cry in the past twenty four hours and he didn’t even know what to say to his friend. Warriors’s arm wouldn’t be broken if it weren’t for him and he wouldn’t have to keep using it if he hadn’t been helping him, and the other hero refused to go to bed because he didn’t believe War could take care of himself and he’d already made him upset about that today since Warriors had found him sleeping at the table. He couldn’t argue with him to sleep, he couldn’t even try to convince him he could handle the doctor on his own because that would surely just piss him off after the conversation they’d just had.

Not for the first time in his life, War found himself wondering if the whole point of him was just to cause suffering for others, because he tried so hard to help and be useful but what good was it when he was usually the one causing pain and destruction in the first place?

“I’ll try to get some more sleep after dinner, promise. How long was I asleep for when I came back to the inn?” he asked. Despite the pain he must have been in, he sounded calmer, at least. 

“I don’t know,” War whispered, hating how his voice shook. “Close to twenty four hours, I think. I don’t know what time it is…”

“Almost a whole day again? Maybe I can wake up in the morning if I sleep after dinner.” It sounded like he was talking to himself but he was still using his regular volume, so he must not have cared if War could hear him. 

He let out a tired hum, planning to attempt to convince Warriors to get some rest later. Right now he was so exhausted after getting barely any sleep and he felt so emotionally worn out that it was difficult for him to keep his eyes open. It felt so selfish to be struggling to stay awake when Warriors was keeping himself up despite his exhaustion, but there was only so much War could do to keep his eyes open.

“I’ll wake you up when the doctor comes if you want to take a nap. You need all the rest you can get,” Warriors said. “Maybe we can trade. If you try to nap now, I will go to sleep after dinner.” 

“Promise?” he summoned the energy to ask, fighting for his life to stay awake just a few more seconds.

“Promise.” 

War would’ve liked to say something else but the second he heard Warriors’s response, his eyes slid closed and he let himself fall asleep.

Warriors watched War fall asleep, then he propped his pillows up so it was more comfortable for him to lean against the wall without him falling asleep. As he waited for the doctor to arrive, he thought about his conversation with War and how despite trying his best to take care of him, all he managed to do was to stress him out and overwhelm him. He knew he wasn’t the most comforting Link - Sky and Twilight were way better than him at it - but he thought he could provide basic care and now he wasn’t even sure of that anymore. 

But he made a promise to War that he would do better and actually try to work with him. He didn’t think War was asking for anything unreasonable, he was just kicking himself because War shouldn’t have had to tell him that he was uncomfortable with a stranger touching him. It should have been fucking obvious. 

Warriors chewed on his lip as he thought, stopping only when he realized he drew some blood. 

“Sir?” The innkeeper’s voice called through the door as he knocked. “The doctor is back to see you, shall I send him up?”

Warriors jolted. “One moment please!” he replied, hopping to his feet and walking over to War’s bed. “War, it’s time to wake up. The doctor is downstairs.” 

The other hero grumbled something in response like he’d really rather be sleeping, but eventually he sighed and forced his eyes open, squinting at him and reaching for his scarf.

“Are you kind of ready? As ready as you can be?” he asked. He figured that War would never be truly prepared but hopefully, the nap helped and he would be kind of present when the doctor came up.  

His friend certainly looked unhappy about it, Warriors could see how anxious he was, but War just let out a sigh and mumbled, “I guess. Wanna get it over with.”

Warriors let out a deep breath and opened the door. He was suddenly very anxious but he agreed with War - he also wanted to get it over with and he kind of liked the doctor. If the doctor was here just for him, that would be one thing, but he was scared that he wouldn’t be able to mediate between the two of them. He was scared that he would still upset War one way or another. “You can send him up,” he told the innkeeper. 

The young man turned around to motion to the doctor waiting at the bottom of the stairs that he could come up before giving Warriors a small goodbye and heading off.

“Good to see you again,” the doctor offered him a smile as he reached their room. “How’s the arm feeling?”

“Good to see you too,” he responded as he grabbed one of the chairs with his right hand and dragged it to War’s bed so that he could sit down between him and the doctor. He held out the broken arm for the doctor. “It still hurts.”

“I have another healing potion for you, as well as the pain medication I mentioned,” the man told him, opening up his bag and pulling out two bottles before handing them to him. “Have you been resting and not using it?”

“I’ve tried. It’s just my dominant hand so I keep accidentally trying to use it and I remember after it hurts that I can’t,” he mumbled as he grabbed one of the bottles and tried to decipher the letters on it. It was easier to admit that he was careless with his arm than it was for him to admit that he had a weird sleeping schedule. 

“Try your best to be careful with it, alright?” The doctor let out a sigh before turning to look at War, who immediately looked down at his scarf with an expression on his face that clearly showed how he’d much rather be anywhere else right now. “His breathing still sounds the same but that’s to be expected. How’s he been doing?”

Warriors glanced at War. Should he be trying to get War to speak when he was already uncomfortable? Instead, he gestured to himself, trying to ask War if he should answer. 

The other hero turned his head towards him, looking a bit ashamed, but he gave a small nod.

“He’s developed a low grade fever. It might have started yesterday but he’s had it all day today. The cough hasn’t really let up and the fever made him too uncomfortable to get any decent sleep last night,” Warriors explained, again sharing a look with War. He decided to leave out the part where War ended up trying to sleep on the table. 

“Hmmm,” the doctor frowned, “the fever isn’t out of the ordinary, but I’ll give you something to add to his tea to help bring that down and help further with the infection in his lungs. I’d like to see the both of you back up on your feet as soon as possible, but I don’t want you to push yourselves either. As for his discomfort and being unable to sleep, I gave you a potion for that did I not?”

“I don’t like it,” War said, and while his voice was quiet his tone was firm.

“The sleep aid really would help him,” the man told Warriors, looking a bit concerned.

“It really stresses him out. Physically, it does its job, but he gets distressed even thinking about it, so I don’t think the added stress is worth it. Is there another way?” he asked, looking up at the doctor. 

“It’s also meant to calm people, it should help him if he’s feeling stressed.”

Warriors shook his head. “It helped him sleep but it didn’t make him feel calm. Can we treat the underlying causes of the discomfort even if it might not work as well?” 

The doctor seemed a little irritated that his one simple solution was no longer an option, but War was staring at him with huge eyes and the most grateful expression he’d ever seen from his friend.

“I’m already adding something that should hopefully help lower the fever,” the doctor sighed, reaching into his bag to pull out a small bottle labeled ‘fever’ in messy writing and setting it on the small table between the two beds. “I had thoughts that maybe this would happen, so I brought a few things with me to see what would be helpful. Just mix it in with what you’re already adding, the herb blend and healing potion.”

“How much? About the same amount as the healing potion? And how much of my painkiller am I supposed to take?” Warriors asked, both because he did actually need to know and because he hoped it would distract that doctor from talking about the sedative again. War might not like him too much but Warriors wanted to make sure that the doctor didn’t leave on the wrong foot. 

“Five drops for him, if his fever disappears for two doses then try lowering the amount. Don’t add more than five drops. For you, either two or three depending on how bad your pain is, and you can have more every six hours,” the man explained.

“Is it a dropper?” he asked, scrutinizing his bottle again. He tried to open the cap by pinching it between two fingers on his bad hand and twisting the bottle open with the other. 

“Both are, yes,” the doctor nodded. “You can have your friend help with opening those, I want you to avoid using that broken arm for anything.”

Oh, right. He was also trying to trust War to take care of himself more so he could take care of himself too and actually let his arm heal. He let go of the cap. “And is the healing potion the same deal as last time? I need take some today and the rest later?” 

“If you’ve gotten a full night of sleep you can go ahead and take the whole thing today, you just also need to get a full night of sleep tonight,” the doctor told him, starting to close up his bag.

“How much for today?” Warriors asked, standing up to go grab his wallet and placing his jars on the small table as he did so. 

“Seventy.”

Warriors set his wallet on his bed and dug around for two purple rupees. Once he found them, he handed them over to the doctor. “I don’t need the change. We aren’t the easiest patients so… have a little extra.” 

The man’s eyes widened and he looked at him in surprise. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.” He had plenty of rupees now and he wasn’t sure how much change the doctor had anyway, so he wasn’t going to fret over thirty rupees. The doctor thanked him again and headed out, closing the door behind him. He turned towards War. “I’m going to go let the innkeeper know that we would like dinner. I’ll be back soon.” 

Warriors walked through the door and closed it behind him again, only to find the doctor still at the top of the stairs. He blinked at him. 

“Has your friend been eating well?” the man asked him.

“He hasn’t been eating as much since he got sick,” he mumbled. “Why?”

“He’s very quiet and I noticed how he was shaking when I was here before, he seemed a little better today but I wonder what part of that is the infection and what’s…” The doctor sighed, taking a step closer to him and lowering his voice. “I mean absolutely no offense to your friend, but he seems a little… weak. And he already looks quite thin, I worry about him getting worse if he’s not able to eat. Making sure he gets food is just as important as rest, and if it’s stress that’s stopping him from eating and sleeping, I think he really should use the sleep aid in a smaller dose.” 

“He gets a little nervous around doctors, that’s why he’s kind of quiet. He was eating more before he got the fever though, so I think if the tea works well, his appetite should return. I will let you know if the fever gets worse,” Warriors answered quietly so that War couldn’t possibly hear them. He appreciated the doctor’s concern, it reminded him to ask for something easy on the stomach again and to go buy those snacks so that War could eat more often throughout the day. “I don’t mean to sound dismissive but I’m just trying to work with him. I don’t want him to get nervous about the other medicines, so I can try to talk to him about the sleep aid again but if he doesn’t want it, I won’t make him take it again.”

“Alright,” the doctor nodded, still looking a little concerned. “If he was eating normally before, then hopefully what I gave him today will work. Once his fever is gone and he’s eating regularly, it would be good for him to move around, but make sure he doesn’t jump back to a normal activity level immediately. I’ll be back to check on the two of you in a few days, but if anything gets worse do send for me before then.”

Warriors offered him a smile and nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on him. We’ll see you later.” 

They bid each other goodbye, then Warriors walked down to the counter to find the innkeeper. He was keeping up pretty well for having two heroes who didn’t feel their best under his roof. “We’re ready for dinner whenever it’s ready. Eleno is feeling a bit under the weather again, so do you have something easier on the stomach?” 

“Was the soup from the first night okay for him?” the young man asked, looking a little worried.

“Yeah, he did seem to like that,” Warriors said with a nod. “And we’ll need the tea and probably one more night, if you don’t mind having us around for longer.” 

“That’s perfectly alright,” the innkeeper told him. “Stay as long as you need to.”

“Thanks again. I don’t know what we would do without you!” Warriors said with another smile as he headed back upstairs to his room. “I asked the innkeeper to bring up more soup. I don’t know how your stomach is with your fever,” he said as he went to the small table to look at all the medication again to make some room for the innkeeper but he decided to just put everything on his bed for a moment. It could wait until after dinner. 

“I’m hungry I just… I fell asleep eating breakfast,” War mumbled. He seemed a little worn out but he didn’t look as anxious as he had when the doctor was in the room.

“Because the fever didn’t let you sleep, right?” he asked. He hoped that the fever medicine would do the trick and he wouldn’t have to get the doctor and possibly make War stress out ever more. He didn’t think it was his place to tell War about his discussion with the doctor and he wouldn’t have to know about the doctor’s concerns if he got better.

“Yeah, I was up like… all night,” the other hero sighed. “I was too hot and I couldn’t get comfortable and at a certain point I just decided to stay up so I’d be able to drink the tea on time.”

“Do you want the window open? I can sleep with more layers on to protect me from the sun if it helps. I don’t really get hot either, so it doesn’t really affect me,” Warriors said with a shrug as went back to his bed to grab the red potion that the doctor brought for him. He promised War that he would go to sleep after dinner, so he should be taking all of his medicine before he got too tired.

“As long as your skin is out of the sunlight,” War said quietly. “It would be nice to have cool air.”

Warriors almost dropped the potion. “I never thought I would hear you say anything nice about the cold.”

“Okay, I feel like I’m melting,” his friend whined, sliding sideways off his pillows and flopping against the mattress. He pouted at him before continuing with a small sigh, “Maybe the cold is nice a little bit sometimes.” 

“And sometimes being warm isn’t nice,” Warriors said with a smirk before he sat down on the bed as he pondered the logistics of getting the cap off his potion bottle. Could he use his teeth? His fangs? Just have War open it for him? He hated having one arm that he actually had to be careful with.

“Do you need help?” War asked him, pushing himself up on shaky arms with a wince. 

“...yes. And my pain killer too,” he mumbled with a frown. 

The other hero slowly got up and walked over to him, sitting on the end of his bed and crossing his legs. He took a moment to breathe steadily again before he held out his hand for the bottle. Warriors passed over the potion and then placed the pain killers on the bed between the two of them. 

“This would be much easier if only one of us felt sick or injured… or if one of us had our brothers so there were eight mother hens to open bottles for us,” he mumbled. 

“Oh gods, I love them to death but when I’m sick and there’s eight of them it’s so overwhelming,” War laughed, easily opening the potion for him before handing it over. “I don’t really get sick all that often, but when I do it usually hits me pretty hard. Last time I got ill we got stuck in town over a week and everyone else recovered after a day or two except me. So of course they all tried to hover and it was a little suffocating.” He rolled his eyes but Warriors could clearly see how he thought of them fondly. “This isn’t contagious, by the way,” he quickly added, pointing to himself. “It’s an infection caused by something irritating my lungs so you don’t have to worry about getting this. If it was contagious I would’ve gotten us two rooms.”

Warriors drank all of the potion at once, then passed War to the other bottle he needed help with. “I wasn’t worried. I don’t get sick, so even if it was contagious, I would still be fine. When I feel sick, it’s usually because I ate something weird, like blood with light magic,” he said with a shrug. “And even then, it doesn’t last long.” 

War raised an eyebrow at him as he opened the other bottle and passed it back. “Huh. So do you just… not get a sore throat ever?”

“Other than the time where I swallowed water that burned me? No,” he answered as he drew up some of the liquid in the dropper and held it over his mouth. He was sure he took a bit more than directed but if hemlock couldn’t kill him and skulltula venom couldn’t kill him, he doubted painkillers could kill him. He passed it back to War to screw the cap back on. 

The other hero looked a little concerned but he closed the bottle for him, pausing to cough to the side for a minute before screwing it on the rest of the way.

“You were listening to the doctor, right? For your dose?” Warriors asked. 

“I was trying to,” he said quietly, reaching for something in his lap before looking over at his bed and realizing he’d left his scarf over there. War settled for fiddling with the edge of his shirt instead. “I think he said five drops for me? I was worried he was going to keep pushing the… I didn’t want to be a problem so I was trying to calm down more than I was paying attention when he was going over the doses, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You got it right. We can lower it if your fever disappears and we just add it to your tea. I’m sure it will be pleasant,” he mumbled. He didn’t ever taste War's tea but it was becoming more medicine than tea. He couldn’t imagine it tasting good. 

“So far it’s not been the greatest thing ever, I can’t even tell what the tea actually is because it just kind of tastes like… medicine.” War shrugged. “But this is what I get for being stupid and drowning, so.”

Warriors frowned at him but he decided that he wasn’t going to press it. He didn’t think it would be the most productive conversation when they were just starting to smooth things over. “You can have my tea too if you want, so you know what it’s supposed to taste like.” 

His friend let out a weak laugh that turned into a painful sounding cough. “It’s alright, you don’t have to give me your tea. It’s my fault I gotta add so much to mine that it completely loses its flavor. The sugar does help a little, to be fair to the tea.”

“The doctor said it’s kind of bitter,” he mumbled, trying to ignore how War was talking about himself. 

The other hero sighed, letting out another cough, but before either of them could say anything else there was a knock at the door followed by the innkeeper calling, “Sir? I have dinner ready for you.”

Warriors opened the door for him just in case the poor man couldn’t open the door by himself again. Once he dropped off dinner and the two of them thanked him, he left. Warriors looked between the tea and War, wondering what the best way to prepare the tea was - should he prepare it and upset his arm or should he bring War to the tea and he could prepare it? 

“Where do you want to eat?” he asked. 

“Table’s fine.” War pushed himself to his feet and slowly headed over. Warriors pulled out the remaining chair that was there for him to sit in before dragging the one he put by War’s bed back to the table for him to sit in. 

“Are you doing your tea?” 

“I can, yeah,” the other hero nodded, sitting down with a wince and taking a moment to breathe before he reached for one of the bowls of soup. Warriors grabbed the other one and dug in. Somehow, he didn’t register the fact that he was starving and didn’t eat anything for a whole day until he started eating, kind of like how he didn’t realize how much pain he was in until he stopped feeling it. It was funny how much he could push out if he was thoroughly distracted. 

He looked up from his bowl once he finished. War was still eating but the only thing Warriors really cared about was the fact that he was eating at all. He didn’t want to tell War about his conversation with the doctor, he really didn’t think it would help him at all, but he kept the doctor’s concerns in mind and simply hoped that the next time the doctor came, War improved and they didn’t have to worry about it anymore. He drank his tea while he waited for War to finish and once he took his tea and finished everything he could, Warriors brought the dishes down. 

“I’m going to keep my side of the promise now. Sleep well,” Warriors mumbled as he tucked himself into bed and threw the scarf over his head to hopefully keep himself safe from the sun.

Chapter Text

War ate as much of the soup as he could stomach before quickly making his tea, drinking it with a grimace, and going to sit on his bed. He was absolutely exhausted after not sleeping well and the conversation he’d had with Warriors earlier, but he was grateful that his friend had defended what he was saying and helped him argue with the doctor against the sleep aid. Having been much more aware for this second visit and able to pay attention a bit more, he hadn’t liked how he’d felt ignored or how the doctor had seemed almost upset with him for not wanting to take the sleep aid but he was glad Warriors had gotten everything he needed. His friend seemed to like the doctor and War couldn’t understand why but maybe that was just because he had his own issues and was too judgmental.

He wished he could’ve had more of the soup, it was amazing and the flavors were incredible, but he was just so tired and it made him feel full rather quickly. It was also warm, and on any other day he would’ve loved that but he still felt hot in just his thin shirt, even with the cold breeze coming through the window. It didn’t surprise him that despite his exhaustion, he struggled to fall asleep at first because of the fever and how badly his body ached, but after an hour he could feel the effects of the medicine he’d taken and it felt like everything lifted just enough for him to drift off.

Any sleep was better than no sleep at all, but War was a little irritated with how he kept waking up every few hours due to physical discomfort and his coughing dragging him awake. Even in the middle of the night with the temperature dropping significantly, the cold air from outside wasn’t quite enough to make him feel comfortable and laying on top of all his covers and blankets didn’t help much either. When he woke up again close to six he decided to just stay awake so he could take his medicine on time, figuring that not missing that dose was more important than a little more sleep.

The innkeeper brought him breakfast once again, bringing up a large bowl of fresh fruits and two empty ones for him and Warriors to pick as much as they wanted to eat, and War thanked him for all his help.

“Oh, it’s no problem,” the man smiled at him, setting a cup of tea on the table for him.

“You’ve done a lot for us, and we greatly appreciate it,” War told him.

The innkeeper didn’t stay around to chat for long, and once he’d left War got himself a good portion of fruit to eat and made his tea so he could drink it and get back to bed as soon as possible. He managed to eat a larger portion of breakfast than he had the day before, which he was quite proud of himself for, and after drinking every last drop of the bitter medicine he also managed to walk himself back to his bed before curling up on the mattress facing the wall. War knew he should probably prop himself more upright because it’d make breathing easier for him, but he was comfortable how he’d flopped down and he figured he wouldn’t end up getting that much sleep anyway so he could move when he woke up. Right now it felt nice getting to lay how he wanted and feel the chilly morning breeze against his back, and he let his eyes close as he fell back asleep.

“Hey, War? You should probably get some lunch… War?” 

He let out a sleepy grumble and stretched out, shivering a little at the cold before slowly blinking his eyes open to find Warriors.

“Huh..?”

“Want some lunch? You need the sleep but the doctor said the first time he was here that food and water are also really important,” he said, then chewed on his lip. “I also knew that.” 

War’s eyes widened and he sat up at the mention of food, grabbing his scarf and wrapping it around himself before getting to his feet and heading over to the table. There were two bowls of soup as well as a little plate of bread and cheese sitting on a tray there and he got ridiculously excited because he knew the innkeeper made some absolutely incredible soup and he felt like he was starving and had full confidence he’d be able to eat it all this time. He grabbed a bowl as he sat down, using one hand to keep his scarf pulled tightly around himself and the second he’d actually gotten into the chair and grabbed a spoon he began to eat.

“You’re certainly excited. Sleep well?” Warriors asked as he sat down and dipped his bread into his soup. 

“Better this time,” War paused for a moment to speak and grab some cheese. “Kept waking up but I did actually sleep, so I’ll take it.”

“Huh, I didn’t hear you at all but I guess that just proves how much I needed some rest,” he mumbled, glaring at his arm before using his right hand to grab the spoon. “You look a bit better though. Do you feel better now that you’ve slept?”

He nodded, pushing his messy curls out of his eyes. “Much better, breathing still feels a little weird but everything else feels better.”

Warriors didn’t say anything right away but he managed to smile as his shoulders relaxed. “That’s good to hear,” he said quietly. “I was really worried for the last few days. I’m glad you’re finally getting better.” 

“I’m sorry for worrying you so much,” War mumbled, frowning at his soup. He truly felt awful for everything he’d put his friend through and even though Warriors had said he’d forgiven him, a large part of War couldn’t help but think the other hero must still be somewhat frustrated with him. It was hard taking care of other people, especially when they were as stubborn and messed up as he was, and he hadn’t meant to make everything so difficult and stressful for Warriors. 

“It’s fine. You didn’t choose to feel shitty and I’m not mad that you decided to splash around in the water for a bit either,” Warriors said with a shrug. He didn’t seem that bothered at least, as he was more focused on his soup.

War pulled his scarf tighter around himself and went back to eating, unsure of what to say. His friend didn’t seem to be in a bad mood at all and that was wonderful, and War hoped the rest he’d gotten had helped him, but he didn’t want to say something that would upset him by apologizing again and again even if he felt like he needed to. 

“After lunch, can you help me with the pain killer again? The pain is better today but it isn’t completely gone,” Warriors said, holding up his wrapped up arm like War could see that it was doing better. 

“Of course,” he nodded. War was a little nervous to ask about it, he still felt horribly guilty for how his friend had refused to show him his broken arm when he’d first told him about it, but he was worried about the other hero and did want to know how he was doing so he gathered the courage to ask, “You… You mentioned you didn’t think it was healing, do you think it’s doing better now?”

He nodded. “Between the sleep, the potions, and the blood, I think it’s finally starting to regenerate. It does hurt less, so I hope that means that it’s finally healing.”

“The blood from the store,” War muttered to himself, barely remembering his friend mentioning that yesterday. “You came back the other day and just… crashed. Are you feeling less tired now?”

“Yeah, that’s because I drank blood. Sometimes it perks me up and gives me a little boost. When I'm injured, it sometimes makes me very sleepy instead. I drank it outside, in an alley so nobody saw, but if I didn’t rush back here, I would have fallen asleep right on the street. I really should have waited until I got back but I didn’t expect it to hit me that hard. I knew you would worry if I didn’t come back at all so I got back as quickly as I could,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry I still worried you either way. I am less tired, though.”

War tried not to look alarmed at that. He didn’t even know what he would’ve done if Warriors had disappeared for that long, he didn’t think he would’ve had the physical strength to go looking for him and that would’ve driven him insane. “I’m glad you’re less tired, that’s good.”

“I think I could still pass out for a whole day though. The last few days have been… a lot,” Warriors said quietly, then looked into his bowl as he continued, “I’m not even concerned with finding my brothers right now because I don’t want them to see me like this after all this time away from them. They expect me to show up when I’m better, not with my arm shattered like it is.”

He frowned, unable to help how horrible he felt about being the reason Warriors had broken his arm. He wasn’t sure he’d ever not feel bad about it, but there was a heavy nauseous guilt that hit him when his thoughts started racing in every direction and he found himself thinking that he was the reason Warriors wasn’t with his friends. Not just because he’d gotten himself sick being stupid, but also because Lana had gotten things fucked up and pulled him here instead of sending Warriors to his brothers.

Warriors tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you doing alright? Do you need something?” 

“I think I’m still just a bit anxious,” War tried to laugh. He didn’t want to make his friend upset with him when things seemed like they were going a bit better, but he didn’t want to lie to him either. 

“About what?” he asked, frowning in confusion as he ate more soup. 

“Just…” War sighed, looking down at his lap. “I think the doctor still, a little, though this second time felt a lot better and uh… Thank you, for that. But also I just…” He wasn’t sure how honest he should be, he really didn’t want to ruin everything again but his guilt was so overwhelming and selfishly it’d be nice to get some of it off his chest. “I just feel really bad, that you got stuck here with me and you couldn’t see your brothers when you went to Lana for help.”

“But that’s not your fault. Besides… I’m still having fun. I want to be with my brothers and I miss them a lot, but this is fun too. I still enjoy spending time with you,” Warriors answered with a smile. “And honestly, I’ll miss you when we’re back to where we’re supposed to be. You don’t have to feel bad about it.” 

War bit his lip, holding back the urge to cough. He’d miss Warriors too, as badly as he wanted to get back to his brothers he’d been having fun with the other hero, but it was hard to believe he’d brought anything worthy of finding enjoyable to their little journey so far. Every major injury Warriors had gotten had been because of him and he talked so much he couldn’t believe the other hero didn’t find it irritating, not to mention he was strange and picky and probably hard to deal with. 

“I don’t understand,” he mumbled, trying to distract himself by eating more of his soup.

“That I would miss you? I like learning new things from you and you’ve made me think about things I’ve never thought about before. Like, I never really thought about the stars before you talked my ears off about them. I like it when you talk about your family, or your cats, and I like teasing you about Sidney. You’re super kind too. You’re… just fun to be around. None of that changes just because we had arguments and frustrated each other sometimes.” 

War felt his eyes burn and he looked up at Warriors, feeling incredibly pathetic for tearing up. “You seriously don’t find me annoying or irritating…? Or just- just a pain to be around?”

“Of course not. You’ve been a little frustrating but I know I’ve been too with how… Well, I’m not careful about my injuries, the fact that I sleep in so much puts us both behind, and I’m actually a danger to everybody around me. I can’t hold it against you when I’m not the easiest to deal with either. My brothers frustrate me sometimes too and they’re idiots sometimes and I still love them,” Warriors said with a shrug. “Point is, I don’t think you’re annoying or a pain to be around and if anybody thinks that, I will bite them.” 

“Oh,” he whispered, staring back at his soup. Now felt like a bad time to bring up how deeply Warriors calling him ‘difficult’ had stung, it was something his brain just kept going back to. If his friend had thought of him as so difficult just a few days ago, and if he’d truly meant what he’d said… Well, it made no sense compared to what Warriors was saying now. He didn’t think the other hero would lie to him now that he was in a better mood just to get War to calm down also, that didn’t feel like something Warriors would do at all, but his horrible mind which liked to always show him of the worst possible scenario reminded him he hadn’t known the other hero all that long. They’d only been traveling together just short of three weeks.

“Did… I do something again?” Warriors asked. 

“No, I just-” He paused for a second to get his thoughts together, mentally kicking himself for not being able to pull himself together enough to have avoided all this. The war had trained him so well to hide how he was feeling, he was embarrassed that he’d seemingly lost that ability because he was surely making a fool of himself. He was probably overreacting and being ridiculous again too, and his inability to think like a rational person was going to make his friend upset, but this had been eating at him and it felt so heavy over him that he found himself needing to ask, “Did you, uh… Did you mean it when you called me ‘difficult’ the other day? I know I’m a pain in the ass and I was making everything hard for you, but… I wasn’t- I really wasn’t trying to be difficult, I just needed…” He cut himself off, because he didn’t want to go and make everything even worse by saying he’d just needed a moment to calm himself down. He was sure he was irritating enough that even without the occasional genuine request people would find him frustrating. 

It took Warriors a minute to answer and he just stared into whatever was left in his bowl. “I…. just lost my patience that day. I know it’s not really an excuse but I was just really worried and I just - it didn’t come across at all. I shouldn’t have forced you to do anything you didn’t want to do that day. I’m sorry I kept forcing things on you.” 

“I know I’m not exactly an easy person to deal with,” War said quietly, adjusting how his scarf laid around his shoulders so he could pull it tighter but keep it away from his neck. “I didn’t mean to cause you so much stress.”

“I know you didn’t. I should have been able to handle it better too but I was worried, in pain, and I stayed up all night even though you didn’t want me to. I might have been calmer and could have handled it better if I treated myself better too,” Warriors mumbled, bringing up his broken arm again before he thought better of it and just kept it on the table. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, wishing he knew what else to say that wasn’t just more of how he felt so awful for everything and how he felt like all of this was just his fault completely. 

“War, it’s fine, really. You’re not responsible for my choices and we can talk all day about what we should have done but we can’t go back and redo it. We just have to learn and do better in the future, right?” Warriors asked quietly. 

“Yeah, we learn and do better,” War mumbled before he coughed, hoping he could blame how horrible the small coughing fit sounded for the few tears that ran down his face. It had hurt, not enough to make him cry, but he hoped the other hero would just assume his lungs were bothering him and not that he was so tired and overwhelmed because he wasn’t sure how much more he could talk about his feelings at the moment before he broke down sobbing and that sounded so exhausting. He didn’t have the energy for that right now. He needed his soup, probably a hug also, and more sleep wouldn’t kill him. 

“Are you done with your soup? Maybe you should get some rest and I can go get some supplies while you’re resting,” Warriors mentioned with a frown as he started eating some of the cheese that was brought up with their soup. 

“I want to try to finish it,” he told him. He wasn’t as hungry as he’d been when he woke up but he wasn’t full yet, and he really needed to eat more food. Not only did his body need it to help him recover, he was terrified of losing weight after he’d finally gained back what he’d lost the last time he was sick. He was insecure enough about how he looked currently, he’d lose his mind if any of the progress he’d been fighting so hard to make got undone. Plus? The soup was genuinely incredible and he really just wanted more of it. 

Warriors blinked at him for a second, then smiled and nodded. “I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll go shopping and take the dishes downstairs when I come back. I shouldn’t be gone for too long.”

“Alright,” he offered him a small smile back. “Be safe, and gentle with your arm.”

“Of course,” Warriors said quickly, perhaps too quickly, as he stood up and went to his bed to get ready. He managed to get everything but his mask on and his cloak tied up in the front. He held up his mask as he was thinking about whether or not he really wanted it. 

“Do you need help?” War asked with a small frown.

He nodded. “I should take the pain killer first. I somehow almost forgot,” he mumbled as he found the bottle and passed it to War. 

He took the bottle and opened it for him before handing it back and tying his friend’s cloak closed, careful not to make it too tight. Warriors held the dropper over his mouth and then put the bottle with the loose lid down on the table. War waited until he was done with that before helping him with his mask, gently sliding it onto his face before he figured he should put the lid back on his friend’s pain medicine before one of them accidentally knocked it over. Warriors pulled his hood up on his own and then he grabbed his bag, awkwardly swinging it over one shoulder before he could use his good arm to force more of it on his left side. 

“I’ll be back soon!” he said with a wave as he walked out of the room.

“Okay!” He managed to call back to him before the door shut, grabbing another piece of cheese and preparing to focus on finishing his lunch.

Warriors let out a sigh once he left the inn. Talking about feelings was exhausting, especially with how often feelings came up in conversation lately, but Warriors thought that those conversations were needed. He didn’t know if War felt better after their conversations but he hoped that things were better between the two of them. He meant everything he said, even the fact that he forgave War, but he didn’t know if that was enough. 

He still wasn’t sure if anything he did since he resuscitated War was enough. War was on the mend and that was all that should matter, but Warriors felt bad he inadvertently hurt the other hero. Warriors shook his head. He promised War that he wouldn’t be out for long so he had to focus on shopping, and not on how bad he felt. 

His first stop was to get more blood. The woman from before wasn’t there and a man helped him instead, but he did mention the black pudding again. It was still odd to him that apparently, there was enough demand for blood from regular people that the shopkeepers didn’t question it much when people bought it. He never thought he would see the day but it worked for him. He was able to get blood and he didn’t need to bother War when he wasn’t feeling well. 

The next stop was getting potions. Warriors didn’t have any and he knew that War only had half a potion, so once he found the shop on the outskirts of town, he bought four potions to split between them. It probably wasn’t enough to see them until the end but it was hopefully enough to get to the next town, at least. 

His final stop was more fruit and snacks. Warriors found a stall with some plums and apricots, so he stuffed his bag and left after paying. Another stall had some jerky and nuts. War ate jerky but Warriors didn’t know if he was a big fan of them, so he just bought some for himself and bought some cashews for War even though he didn’t appreciate them. 

Warriors was just heading back to the inn when he heard somebody shout and a dog bark. At first, he ignored it until the dog barked again and he realized that the bark sounded closer than before. He quickly turned around and found a dog charging straight at him. He yelped and ran. He had no choice but to use his broken arm to help him run and it burned but it was better than getting mauled by a dog. Warriors skidded to a stop in front of the inn and went in, slamming the door behind him. 

The innkeeper jumped in surprise but Warriors simply apologized quickly before running up the stairs. He didn’t feel safe from the dog until he quickly entered his own room and locked the door behind him, sliding down to the floor as he did so. His broken arm shook alongside the rest of his body. 

“You okay?” War asked, sitting up from where he’d gone back to lay on his bed.

“There was a dog,” he explained, staying on the floor in front of the door. “It wanted to kill me.” 

The other hero looked at him in shock. “Oh my gods? I’m sorry.”

“It was chasing me down the street,” he mumbled, then he took a deep breath and got back up to his feet. It was a little awkward since he had to use his right hand to push himself off the floor but once he was on his feet, he made it to his bed where he started emptying out his bag. “It was after I finished shopping though. I got you some cashews and apricots.” 

War’s eyes widened at that. “Y- You did? Thank you.”

“Is it shocking? I said I would buy you snacks,” he said as he took them out of his bag for War. “I got myself some blood because you’re in no condition to give me anyway, and I also got more potions for the road. I told you I wouldn’t be out for long.” 

“I’m glad you got some blood,” War smiled. “It’s good that you can get some here.”

“It’s fucking weird though. I guess people around here use it to make something called black pudding but I don’t know what that is. I just never thought I would see a store sell blood and nobody questioning it when somebody actually buys it. Am I the only one who finds that weird?” Warriors asked with a frown as he took out the two bottles of blood. “And it’s cold.” 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a store sell blood either.” His friend’s brows furrowed as he thought about it. “Is it weird for you that it’s cold?”

“It’s not cold when I’m drinking it from the source and it’s not cold when it comes out of Wild’s slate. I like it when blood is warm. It’s one of the reasons why I like drinking from somebody’s neck, it’s a little warmer there than at the wrist. I never even had cold blood before this,” he mumbled as he set them down on the bed. He could wait for them to warm up to room temperature, at least. Last time, he drank them cold because he was so desperate for it but he was more patient today and he was willing to wait for the blood to taste better. 

“Maybe there’s some way we could warm it up for you…?” War suggested.

“Do you have ideas?” he asked with a frown as he pulled out two potions for his bag and also set them on the table for War to grab. “I can wait for it to warm up, it’s not a big deal if you don’t have any. I’m not starving or anything.” 

“Hmmm… Maybe we could have the innkeeper get us hot water and you could put it against that..?” War said slowly. 

“I guess that could work,” he said as he looked at the table. The dishes from their lunch weren’t there and somehow, he missed the fact that they were gone when he was busy setting down all the things he got for War on it. “Did you take them down?” 

“I did, yeah,” he nodded. “It took me a few trips and I was a little nervous about dropping the dishes but I took them down.”

Warriors blinked and chewed on his lips. He said he would take them down so that War could rest. He wasn’t mad that War decided to handle it after all but he didn’t want War to push himself and he was worried that may already have. “Do you feel okay after that?” he asked. 

“Yeah! I’m a little tired, but I’ve been tired all day so that’s not really new,” War shrugged. “It felt good to walk around, honestly. The innkeeper looked horrified when he saw me coming down the stairs and tried to assure me he could get all the dishes but I wanted to be able to move around after laying in bed for so long so I told him it was fine. Going back up the stairs was a little hard on me but I’m alright.”

“Just don’t push yourself too hard when you’re walking around,” he mumbled. The doctor did say that moving around was good for him, so long as he didn’t try to go back to the level of activity they were doing before. “I don’t mind waiting a bit longer for you to get completely better. I’ll go down and ask for water though if you want to put everything on the table away. It’s all things I got for you.” 

“I can do that,” the other hero nodded. “And I am being careful, I don’t want to make myself worse and waste more time.”

Warriors just nodded at him. He supposed he just had to trust that War knew where his limit was and wouldn’t go over it. He unlocked the door and went downstairs where he found the poor innkeeper. 

“Sorry about earlier. I was being chased by a dog,” he said quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Um, is it possible to get a bowl of hot water up to our room?” 

“It’s alright,” the innkeeper told him, “and yes! I can have that up for you as soon as possible. Would you be needing any tea bags with that?”

“Maybe just one? Eleno’s never had the tea without the medicine we need to add to it, I’m sure he would like to try and see what it’s supposed to be like.” It would be nice to use the water to do something other than warm up some blood for him. Maybe Wild was rubbing off on him, but he didn’t want to waste the water. The innkeeper nodded at him, so Warriors headed back up. 

“He asked if we wanted tea bags, so I asked for one for you. I thought you might want to see what it’s supposed to taste like,” Warriors said when he saw War again. He quickly stashed the two bottles of blood into his bag so that the innkeeper didn’t see them. 

“Oh, thank you,” War blinked in surprise. “I do like tea.”

“I hoped you did. I knew you didn’t exactly like coffee, you just drank it because it helped you in other ways. It sounded like you just tolerated it so that’s why I asked for tea the first time. It just got easy to ask for it after that,” Warriors said with a shrug. “I guess I like tea better too. I have to add sugar to my coffee.” 

“I add sugar to my tea sometimes, usually only when I just need the sugar and I don’t have a lot of food on me,” War told him. “Or, you know, now because of the medicine.”

“I’m sorry it tastes so bad,” Warriors mumbled, though he knew that the alternative of War recovering on his own without it was probably worse than the taste of the medicine. “It is helping though, right? You seem a lot better than you were but…” He couldn’t help but to feel bad about the whole thing. 

“It’s definitely helping,” his friend nodded seriously. “Infections like this… It’s… When people drown like I did…” War bit his lip with a frown before continuing very quietly. “You said you pulled me out and I wasn’t breathing. I inhaled a decent amount of water. It was already unlikely that I would’ve survived initially and started breathing again because there’s never a guarantee that chest compressions will work, but without the medicine, without any kind of medical care, I probably would not have survived. And if I had, we’re looking at permanent lung damage. I’m actively recovering, my lungs still hurt but I’ve been coughing shit up and they feel better than they did. The medicine is absolutely helping, and genuinely thank you for getting it for me faster than I would’ve gotten it for myself.”

Warriors frowned at him. It wasn’t the first time that War told him that he made the right choice in getting the doctor. However, he had a hard time feeling comfortable with his decision when War also admitted to the fact that he was miserable and uncomfortable the whole time, that Warriors hurt him when he gave the doctor permission to use the sedative and when he asked him to not be difficult. It was hard to feel good about what he did right when all Warriors could focus on was what he did wrong. 

“That’s good,” was all he managed to mumble. 

“I have the water and tea for you, sir!” the innkeeper called from outside the door.

Warriors opened the door for him. “Can you set it down on the table please?” he asked. 

“Of course!” The young man smiled, seeming much happier now that War was looking better. He set the small tray with a teapot, two cups, and a small container of tea leaves down on the table before heading back to the door to leave. “I’ll bring up dinner for the two of you later! As well as more tea.”

“Thanks again,” Warriors said as the innkeeper left their room and headed back downstairs. He shut the door and took out his two bottles of blood and put them on the table. He poured himself a cup of water and added the leaves, then put the cup down beside the blood as he waited for the tea to steep. The tea was usually done when it was brought up but the smell of the tea leaves was pleasant. “How much time do you think you need before we can leave?”

“I don’t know…” War mumbled as he moved to sit down at the table. “I’m still exhausted and coughing shit up, and I want to get back on the road as soon as possible but… I don’t want to end up getting worse and delaying us longer.”

“We’re not in the best position to camp outside for long stretches of time so it’s better to extend our stay here if we need it. I can ask for two more days and then we’ll see how we both feel from there? Oh, and the doctor wanted to come back too. I saw him at the door when he left the last time,” Warriors mumbled. 

The other hero let out a small grumble but he didn’t say anything about the doctor. “Yeah, that’ll work. I’m sorry I’m keeping us here for so long.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m fit for battle if we run into trouble and we always do, so I’m also part of the reason why we’re still here too. I should have been a lot more careful with my arm.” There were a lot of things he should have done and didn’t. His arm was just one more thing he did wrong. Warriors did his best to keep his face neutral as he waited for his blood to warm up. 

War let out a small sigh, sounding a little defeated as he quietly said, “Rest is good for both of us.”

“Speaking of rest, I was thinking of going to sleep after dinner again when I pay for our room for two more nights. With the blood, I might be out for a while. You’ll be fine for a while, right?” 

“Of course,” he nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

“Depending on how you feel, maybe you can explore the town?” Warriors suggested. There was no reason for him to stay cooped up in the inn if he could make it down the stairs. Besides, there were places to sit down if he did get tired. He just had to pace himself. “There is that dagger throwing game that I think you would be good at and a round or two shouldn’t hurt you. I don’t know if you like dogs, but there are dogs.”

“It would be nice to get fresh air,” War agreed. “There’s a dagger throwing game?”

“Yeah! That’s where I got a lot of the rupees I won. I got good at it and kept playing until I won a lot. It’s down an alley, it’s not exactly easy to find but it’ll be obvious when you do find it,” Warriors answered with a nod as he took a sip of his tea. 

The other hero slowly raised an eyebrow at him as he finally started to prepare his tea. “You were out throwing daggers?”

Warriors returned his expression. He thought he already explained that he played a couple of games and got a lot of rupees out of it. Perhaps he was just unwell and couldn’t remember that they had this conversation before. “Yeah? I already said I did.” 

War frowned, staring at the tea pot in confusion. “Huh, I guess I forgot.”

“You were still pretty tired,” Warriors mumbled. He was hoping it was because War was still tired when they first talked and it wasn’t the result of something new that he needed to worry about. “I also played a chest guessing game but the keys they used were heavy and reek of iron so… I kind of cheated.” 

His friend raised an eyebrow at him again, though he still seemed a little upset that he’d forgotten Warriors telling him about the dagger throwing. “How’d you cheat?”

“I just picked the box that smelled the most like iron. I figured out pretty quickly that I could smell the key through the chest, so I always got it right even with multiple boxes to choose from. Iron smells kind of like blood, I guess that’s why I could smell it so well,” he said with a shrug. “But I wasn’t caught.”

“Damn, that’s… that’s really cool that you could do that,” War let out a small laugh, seeming a little more relaxed.

“I got like two hundred rupees from doing that. I feel kind of bad but I think I would have felt bad if I lost and didn’t get anything,” he said, taking a sip of his tea. “I went out to get more rupees, not lose any.” 

“I mean they never said you couldn’t smell the iron,” War snorted, and then grimaced as he started coughing. 

“I don’t think most people can, so I don’t think they thought it was even something they had to worry about. I was followed to make sure I didn’t cheat otherwise.” He frowned, not at  the memory but at the cough that didn’t seem to leave War alone. War said he needed to cough to clear his lungs but he was beginning to wonder if he would ever stop. 

Right when War was starting to look a bit panicked and like he couldn’t get air, he finally stopped coughing, slumping back against the chair with a low groan. 

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?” Warriors asked, pushing his chair out from the table in case he needed to get up. He didn’t want to crowd War after everything that happened lately but he also didn’t want to just leave him to own devices if he could help. After everything that happened since he pulled War out of the water, he learned that asking what War wanted was better than just assuming he was doing something helpful. 

His friend lifted his head up so it was no longer hanging off the back of the chair at an uncomfortable angle and looked at him with an annoyed frown. “I’m fine, I’m just getting frustrated with myself.”

“Because of your cough?” he asked quietly. If that was the case, Warriors understood him. He too was frustrated with how long his arm was taking to regenerate, even though he knew he wasn’t exactly helping himself in that regard. He knew he shouldn’t have used it as much as he did. Unlike War, it was entirely his fault that his arm hasn’t healed yet. 

“Yeah,” War sighed, “and just… I don’t like being sick. I don’t think anyone does, but I just feel useless and genuinely all the coughing makes my chest really sore but I know I can’t ask for anything to help stop it because I need to cough.” He bit his lip, looking a bit uncomfortable before he whispered, “I don’t like feeling weak like this. It’s getting frustrating, and I know I’m getting better because I feel better but I just don’t like it. I know it’s my fault this happened but gods, and I don’t like being… whiny… but I’ll be honest I do have a strong urge to just complain.”

“I mean, you can complain if you want,” Warriors mumbled as he took another sip of his tea. He wasn’t sure what else he could really say to help. Telling him that it was okay to be weak just sounded wrong coming out of Warriors’ mouth since he applied that sort of standard to himself. He also didn’t like being weak and he wouldn’t handle it well if somebody told him it was okay to be weak. 

“It’s just so annoying,” War mumbled, staring at him with big, sad eyes. “My lungs hurt and it’s just annoying. Never inhale things, learn from my mistake.”

“I didn’t plan on it,” Warriors answered, chewing on his lip. “Swallowing water that was basically fire to me was bad enough. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if it was in my lungs.” He couldn't help but shiver at the very thought of it. 

“Bad,” his friend frowned at him. “Inhaling shit is awful always, I’m very very glad you didn’t get that water in your lungs when you fell.”

“They had to debride all my burns because the vampires figured out that my body wasn’t going to use any of the damaged tissue. They took all my charred flesh off. I don’t really remember it but I guess I just… threw up the damaged tissue from my stomach and esophagus?” In hindsight, he was very glad he didn’t remember the early days of his recovery. “If it was my lungs, I don’t even know how they would have healed. They would have eventually but I don’t think it would have been pleasant.” 

War stared at him in horror, his jaw dropping a little, completely unable to hide his reaction to what Warriors had just told him. He almost looked a little ill, like he was thinking about what that might’ve been like and was unable to stop his brain from imagining things.

When he was finally able to get a word out, the other hero whispered, “Are you alright, Link…?”

“Other than the broken arm and my overly sensitive skin, I’m fine. Why?” Warriors asked, tilting his head. 

“Was that not a deeply traumatic experience for you?” his friend asked gently, looking a little confused.

He shrugged. “I don’t really remember it. I wasn’t conscious when they debrided my burns and I wasn’t really awake when I threw up either. I kind of remember it but I didn’t know it was any different from all the other times my stomach betrayed me. I know all of that happened because the vampires told me it did. Besides, it helped me feel better.” 

War looked very concerned, his face twisting into a frown. “Well… I’m glad you’re alright and not- not bothered by it.”

“I think you’re more bothered by it than I am,” Warriors mumbled. “You remind me of my brothers like that. The concern is appreciated though.” 

“I just…” His friend was really trying to get his face to have a more neutral expression but he couldn’t completely get rid of his worry. “I mean… I’m glad you’re physically recovering and that this isn’t something you can’t get off your mind.”

“I’m not bothered by it, truly. I complain about it but I’m not bothered. There are things that do bother me but my body doing weird things to recover isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s kind of interesting sometimes!  I’m more bothered by losing control or my vampirism causing problems. That’s when my mind starts trying to fill in the gaps,” Warriors answered quietly. 

“Yeah… That makes sense,” War said softly. 

“Would you be bothered if you were in my situation? Like, is it weird that I’m not bothered?” 

“Well, I think you know by now that I find myself bothered by quite a number of things, whether they be real legitimate problems or a tiny spider on the wall so I’m probably not the best person to base whether or not something is weird off of,” the other hero tried to joke before his voice got a bit quieter. “But… Yes, I think I would be. I have, um… My memory isn’t the greatest, it’s part of why I write in my journal so much, it helps me organize my thoughts and remember things. There are a number of things that I’ve gone through that I don’t have full memory of, just little fragments and pieces of a something like the color of the wall where I was or a few words that someone had said. And for a good portion of those things that I can’t remember, I do still know what happened, and I am still bothered by it.”

“Do you just block it out? Is that why you can’t remember it?” he asked with a frown. 

“Impa explained it’s my brain’s way of protecting my sanity,” War mumbled. “I mean I was kind of taught to dissociate to get through things with the torture training, because if I feel so disconnected from myself then I’m able to ignore the physical pain much easier but it’s hard to remember things when that happens. So when unpredictable events happened, Impa says my brain knew the best way to just… get me through it. Sometimes I don’t remember anything from whatever happened at all, just what other people tell me, but there are some events I have little pieces of my own memories from.”

Warriors couldn’t help but to wonder why War was worried about him. He supposed that War knowing about how he reacted to traumatic things made him concerned about Warriors’ lack of reaction. “Do you think you want to remember? Sometimes, I know that I don’t want to remember something but other times, if I knew, then my brain wouldn’t try to fill in the gaps.” 

“Sometimes I wish I could,” the other hero whispered, rubbing at his forearm. “There are some days I’m just… consumed by the need to have all of the memories, all the details of everything that happened. It scares me that I don’t know, it scares me that I’m left with just pieces of my own experience that I was there for and that there could be things that happened to me that I just don’t know about. I can tell you I went through torture training, I can tell you that I was captured during the war, I can tell you that assassins have broken into my rooms. I can tell you about the basic report of the events but… There’s so much past that that I don’t know, that no one can tell me because the only people who would know are the ones who…” War forced his hands to rest on the table the second his fingers running over his sleeve turned to more of a scratching motion. “But there are other days I’m glad I can’t remember.”

“I’m sorry that all of that shit happened to you. I know what it’s like to have just… pieces. It doesn’t happen for the same reason but you know,” he mumbled. He never had torture training, or assassins that broke into his rooms since his assassins seemed to prefer a hands off approach when they weren’t on the battlefield, but he did lose control of himself. His body sometimes just operated purely on instinct. Warriors just wasn’t there when it happened. “I don’t know if that helps or not, though.” 

“It feels almost cowardly to wish I didn’t remember anything at all,” War’s voice was so quiet he would’ve missed it if not for him being a vampire. 

“It’s not cowardly and you’re far from the only one who doesn’t want to be haunted by their past,” he said quietly, though loud enough for War to hear him. 

“I feel like it’s destroyed me,” his friend muttered. “I’m not the same person anymore, and I wish there was a way to forget everything or even just a way to move forwards because it feels like I’m stuck. I know I’ve made some progress, but…” He paused to take a long sip of his tea before setting the cup down with a heavy sigh and burying his face in his hands. “I’m sorry. You said I could complain about how annoyed I am with being sick, you didn’t sign up to hear about all the ways I’m fucked up and broken.”

“It’s fine. Sometimes, just saying it out loud helps. Or if it doesn’t, that’s okay too but I hope that you have other people who can actually help you if I can’t,” Warriors said with a shrug. “I care. I want to help if I can.”

“It’s just… It’s really hard to talk about most of the time,” he whispered, finishing his tea. “I don’t like thinking about the memories a lot of the time it makes me just…” War stopped to let out a cough, anxiously rubbing at his collarbone for a moment as he frowned and took a moment to think. When he’d collected himself enough to speak again, his words were slow and quiet but his voice remained steady. “You asked me yesterday what I had against the sleep aid and I couldn’t quite answer you at the moment, but I’ve been given sedatives without my knowledge in the past, by people with far worse intentions. I’ve been given food I knew was drugged that I had no choice but to eat because the consequence of not eating was having it forcibly put in my mouth so I didn’t starve or pass out from low blood sugar. You had no idea and I do believe you only wanted to help me, and truthfully I really would’ve benefited from taking it every night, but… That’s why I lost it.” 

“I did just want to help. I knew you didn’t sleep well because you kept coughing the night before…” he mumbled, drinking the rest of his tea. “What do you mean by worse intentions though?” 

War stared dead at him and while his face was mostly expressionless, Warriors could see the pain and fear in his haunted eyes. “She turned you into a vampire, she kept me as her prisoner for a week. Maybe longer. I don’t remember. Said she didn’t need to bother chaining me up because I couldn’t have fought off a single bokoblin if I tried.”

“That’s why…” That’s why War froze whenever he mentioned Cia. He couldn’t say War’s experience was worse than his because they both sucked for different reasons and neither one of them deserved what they got. War didn’t deserve to be her prisoner and Warriors didn’t deserve to be cursed. In fact, neither of them deserve to have been dragged into a war because of her. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“My head is killing me, I think I’m going to get some sleep before dinner,” War said plainly, pushing himself out of his chair with shaking arms. He slowly walked towards him, holding out a hand to make his gesture clear and when Warriors didn’t move he gently rested his hand on his shoulder for a brief moment as he walked past him. “Thank you for getting me the tea, it is rather lovely on its own. I really do appreciate everything you’ve done to help me, not just these past few days but the whole time we’ve been traveling together.” 

Warriors felt his face burn a little bit. “You’re welcome,” he said quietly, unsure of what else to say. He decided to bring down the dishes while War tucked himself in and once he came back upstairs, he sat down on his bed and just thought. He thought about his brothers, he thought about everything he learned about War, and he thought about all of his mistakes. He even thought about the sedative and what they should do with the bottle. Warriors jumped when there was a knock at the door, indicating it was dinner time. He hid the bottles of blood under his pillow and let the innkeeper in.

He woke up War since he could take care of his own tea now and he figured that the other hero preferred to prepare his own tea. Dinner was steamed vegetables with some rice that wasn’t unlike the kind they ate with Karla, Dale, and Anna. Once dinner was over and dishes were brought down, Warriors sat down on his bed again and took his bottles of blood out of hiding. He also took out the bottle of sedative from his bag. 

“I think we can get rid of this,” Warriors mumbled as he held up the bottle. 

War looked incredibly uncomfortable and nervous the second he saw the bottle, but once the other hero processed what he’d said, he nodded. “Yes, please. I wouldn’t mind throwing it at a wall outside.”

He put it down beside him so could drink his blood. Warriors had to hold it in his bad hand and used his good blood to open it but it didn’t hurt his broken arm at all to do it. Once he downed both bottles of blood, he turned to War with the bottle of sedative in his hand again. “I have a different idea.” 

His friend still looked nervous, but he raised an eyebrow at him curiously. “Oh?”

Warriors looked War in the eye, opened the bottle, and drank the entire bottle in one gulp before he closed the bottle and tossed it in his bag. It made him shiver. “Oh, that did not taste good.” 

War stood up from the table so quickly he almost knocked his chair over and let out something between a panicked shriek and a cough. “Why did you do that???”

“I need the sleep?” It came out more of a question than he intended but he didn’t know why War seemed so alarmed by it. “It’s not like it will kill me. If it’s anything like hemlock, it just means I will be well rested whenever I wake up.” 

The other hero looked stressed as he walked over to him, opening his mouth to speak and failing several times before just giving up and tightly gripping the roots of his hair with both hands. It took him a few seconds of just breathing, staring at him with wide eyes before he was able to get out, “You just drank the whole bottle.”

“Yeah, we wanted it gone! I don’t understand what the big deal is,” Warriors said with a shrug. 

“There are like eight billion other ways we could’ve gotten rid of it without either one of us having to drink it!” War groaned, not releasing his grip on his hair. If anything his fingers curled tighter around the strands in his grasp as he started sputtering. “We don’t even- What if it- You don’t- Oh my gods- Link, you- Ugh!”

“Did you forget that I’m a vampire and there’s only like three things that can kill me? I’ll be fine and really refreshed when I wake up,” he said as he stretched. “It should definitely help with my arm but… Um, maybe tell the innkeeper that I won’t need breakfast.” 

“What if it puts you into a coma or something??? That was supposed to last…? I don’t even know how long! But only one dose was used so you probably just- Oh my gods.”

“I’ll be fine. You can always wave blood under my nose if you need to wake me up,” he said, hiding a yawn behind his hand. Warriors should have expected it to work quickly. The pain killers did. “I’ve had enough hemlock to kill me like ten times over and I woke up the next day.”

“I can’t believe you just…” War looked like he wanted to cry, and it was hard to tell if that was because of how stressed he was or if he was actively ripping out his hair with how tightly he had it wound around his fingers. 

Warriors stretched and tucked himself under his blanket. “I’ll be fine. I might be asleep for a whole day again but I promise that I’ll be fine,” he mumbled. 

“If I have a heart attack and die I’m blaming you,” his friend whined, flopping back on his own bed and letting out a pathetic cough. “Don’t do shit like this to me.” He flipped himself onto his side so he could scowl at him but there was no anger behind the expression and he just looked a bit worried still. It resembled more of a pout, really. “If you die on me because you drank that full bottle I swear…”

Warriors rolled his eyes at him. “I’m not going to die, but if you die, I’ll find a way to take you home, don’t worry about that,” he mumbled. “But seriously, I’ll be fine. Just a little sleepy.” 

“…Promise?” 

“Promise… now let me sleep,” Warriors mumbled as he turned around in his bed so that his back was facing War. It only took a few more seconds after that for him to fall asleep, so if War said anything, he didn’t hear it.

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. 

Chapter Text

“So, how do we want to do this?” War moved gently, trying his best to get a good stretch but not wanting to push himself too quickly because he knew his body had been aching from days of nothing and then a little sore from all the walking around yesterday.

He’d woken up right as the innkeeper must’ve started heading up the stairs that morning, which was nice because he’d been able to take his medicine at the right time but also rather unfortunate because he’d probably looked like he had no idea what was happening when he’d opened the door for the young man, unable to have had enough time to process being awake before he’d needed to be functional. But he’d had his time to wake up and adjust during breakfast, and a little more time as he’d done his little morning routine in bathroom and gotten ready for the day, before he and Warriors had headed out to the small field just outside the town to spar. It was a bit chilly, he’d left his scarf back in the room because he’d known he’d be taking it off anyway, but he had at least thought to put on his warmer shirt under his tunic and he knew he’d warm up the more he started moving.

He was excited but also a bit scared to spar with Warriors. Excited because he needed to move, he needed to let out some of the energy that’d started building up that laying around in bed doing nothing hadn’t allowed him to, and he missed sparring with his brothers. It was a good way to pass time and a good way to test skills, but War was also a bit nervous because not only was he still recovering, Warriors was just… bigger than him. The other hero was stronger than he was even without having to use his vampire powers, and that was something he’d figured out before spending a week in bed coughing shit out of his lungs. He had no idea what his current strength had fallen to and part of him was terrified to find out. War wasn’t sure what he’d do if he realized he’d grown weaker… It was hard to not get frustrated with himself when things got worse, no matter how many times the people in his life had told him that healing and recovery weren’t linear and it’s okay if things unravel a little as he worked to get better, but it didn’t make it any less upsetting. Hearing those words didn’t make him feel any less helpless, and he was getting exhausted of feeling helpless.

Even if Warriors was stronger than him, even if War felt like he had a disadvantage because of how his lungs ached and how sick he’d been, he needed to at least be able to hold his ground for a bit. He needed to prove to himself that he wouldn’t just get knocked over immediately.

“How do you feel about hand to hand combat?” Warriors asked. He was currently sitting on the grass with his legs stretched out in front of him. He was trying and failing to put his fingers on his toes. He was close but he couldn’t quite bend himself that far. War wondered if he was feeling a little stiff too or if he was just more flexible than his friend. 

“I’m pretty good with it,” he nodded. “I learned a little from military training, just basics really, but it was mostly Impa who taught me. She made me so significantly better at it.”

“Well, shit,” Warriors mumbled, giving up on trying to touch his toes. Instead, he dramatically fell backwards to lay down in the grass. “I brushed up on it recently because I was training with one of the vampires but sheikah training isn’t something to scoff at.” 

War tried to twist to get his back to pop, letting out a relieved sigh when it did. “She’s one of our strongest warriors for sure, and she does help train some of our soldiers, but there are things she refuses to teach others. She’s never said her reasons, she’s just said there are techniques she doesn’t wish to share with anyone. I learned a lot from her, being that I was the only person besides Zelda she really taught and did end up sharing things with.”

“If this turns out well for you, I might have to ask my Impa if she is willing to teach me, once everything is said and done, of course.” He hesitated for a moment, then continued, “Just let me know when you’re ready.” 

War spent a little more time stretching, trying to focus on calming himself as well and not stress so much about failing. He knew his Impa had only taught him all the things she had because after he’d escaped from his week in captivity he’d been an absolute mess and she’d wanted to give him something to focus on while also giving him more confidence in his ability to defend himself without a weapon, but even after he’d started to calm and outwardly act like himself she’d kept teaching him. Not just combat, but with her guidance he’d gotten better at slowing down all the racing thoughts in his head and his ability to hold his focus spirit had improved as well. But all he’d learned from Impa wouldn’t matter much if he’d grown weak and Warriors could just push him over.

He took in a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying to push everything out of his mind. He certainly wouldn’t win if he kept doubting himself and getting distracted, he just had to relearn his strength and figure out the other hero’s fighting style and then this would be no different from sparring with his brothers.

“Alright,” he said, voice steady as he pushed himself to his feet and brushed himself off. “I’m ready.”

“Do you have any rules?” Warriors asked as he jumped to his feet. “Personally, I would like to be able to stop and go back into the shade if my face starts feeling tingly.” 

“Please don’t touch my neck,” War told him, resisting the urge to anxiously rub at his collar bone, “and I don’t care if you knock me down or whatever, or if you end up falling on me, but please don’t hold me down. I don’t care if it’s joking around or whatever, just… Let me get up. And also be careful of my ears, I guess, since I just got those pierced, and maybe don’t hit me square in the chest because I think my lungs would throw a fit if you did.” He tried to laugh at the end so his friend couldn’t tell how genuinely terrified of being pinned to the ground he was. 

Warriors simply nodded, though his face was completely neutral. There was little warning to his attack - he came at him fast, using his leg to try to sweep his legs out from underneath him. War hadn’t been expecting that, he’d gotten too used to Twilight throwing punches to start and while he certainly used a kick as an opening move most of the time, he wasn’t used to it being used against him. It should’ve made sense that Warriors would try to kick him given how his arm had been broken, and he felt stupid for not thinking about that. The other hero’s foot smacked into the side of his calf, and he’d been so prepared to block a punch that the hit knocked him off balance and he fell hard on the grass, managing to slow his fall with one arm before landing flat on his back. He let out a cough as he felt the air get pushed out of him but he didn’t let himself stay down for long, he was still coughing a little as he pushed himself to his feet and got ready to go again.

Warriors was grinning as he went at him again but this time, he sped past War to try and hit him from behind. He reacted much faster than he thought he’d be able to, taking a quick step to turn his body around before taking a small jump step for momentum so he could launch himself into the air, swinging one leg and twisting so his heel rammed into the other hero’s shoulder before his other leg smacked into the arm that Warriors used to defend himself.

“Fuck, I need a moment,” Warriors hissed, hopping backwards to massage his left arm. He took deep breaths until he stood up straighter. “Okay, I’m ready.” 

“Are you sure?” He asked, frowning in concern and a little upset with himself for reacting so instinctively to something behind him instead of stopping to think that it was his friend and not something that wanted to hurt him for real. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d use your arm to block like that…”

“It was a reflex, I wasn’t thinking,” he said as he straightened his shoulders. “I’m good now, I promise.” 

“Okay,” War nodded. He had to believe him so he didn’t waste all their time worrying, and he hoped at this point Warriors wouldn’t lie to him.

Moving before the other hero got the chance to strike first, he took a few fast steps towards Warriors’s left side, raising his arm like he was going to strike his shoulder. At the last minute he fell to the right, attempting to use his foot to knock the other hero off balance but his friend managed to jump back at the last second and throw a punch at his left shoulder. War let out a small noise, letting the force push him backwards so he could more easily twist out of the way. He could feel the ache deep in his arm where he’d been struck, but Warriors had punched a place on his massive burn scar where his nerves were damaged so he didn’t feel the stinging itch on his skin that he would’ve had his friend hit his other arm.

Knowing Warriors wouldn’t waste time in throwing another punch, he used the distance that he’d put between them to get enough speed to jump and flip over his friend’s shoulder, grabbing him and slamming him into the ground as he did. Or at least that was what should have happened, because War knew that while he wasn’t the biggest person, that move was enough to take down Twilight. He didn’t even have time to process his shock when not only did Warriors stay perfectly upright, but also grab him and manage to toss him off, leaving War to smack face down into the dirt.

“Nobody said I couldn’t use my vampire powers!” Warriors said with a laugh. “That was a neat little trick though!”

He let out a rough cough, pushing himself up on slightly shaky arms and blinking down at the ground in shock. That… That had never not worked in his favor. No one had ever grabbed him mid air like that before in his life.

“Did you use your vampire strength or-??” War wheezed, sitting back on his heels and bracing his hands on his knees.

“The power that lets me climb up walls, actually. It turns out it’s also really good for anchoring myself to the ground too. I found that out in the hotel room,” Warriors said with a grin that showed off his fangs. “I did use a little bit of my strength to throw you though.” 

That made him feel much better about himself.

“Damn,” he breathed, shaking his head and letting out another few coughs with a grimace before getting to his feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked, tilting his head slightly as he took a few steps closer. 

His lungs ached, but they’d been aching since he’d inhaled the water from the lake so that wasn’t new, though he was a little dizzy from how he’d fallen and from how hard he was breathing to catch his breath. It was hard to not get frustrated with himself, he could tell he wasn’t physically capable of what he usually was but it was hard to keep reminding himself that he was supposed to be taking it a little slow too. Walking around town yesterday had exhausted him and he jumped straight from that to sparring, of course he wouldn’t be doing his best. But it still stung a bit that he kept failing.

“I think so,” War nodded, taking a moment before pushing himself to his feet.

Warriors nodded and charged at him, thankfully without his vampire speed and swung at his shoulder once again. He was expecting it this time, now getting used to how little of a warning the other hero would give him before attacking, and he was able to avoid the blow by crouching down and ducking out of the way. His friend stumbled forward as his punch hit only air and War sprung forward, slamming his shoulder into Warriors’s hip as he attempted to stand up, successfully flipping the other hero behind him. He wobbled a little as he straightened up and Warriors slammed into the ground behind him.

He couldn’t keep the little smirk off his face as pride and satisfaction replaced some of his insecurities and fears that he’d grown too weak. That move always worked on the rancher, even though he’d pulled it hundreds of times, Twilight never saw it coming and apparently, Warriors hadn’t either.

Warriors groaned. Landing on the ground knocked the air out of his lungs and he had to breathe through his mouth to get enough air. After spending a moment on the ground, he slowly sat up. He didn’t expect War to actually throw him, especially since War was a bit smaller than he was, but he knew that strength and size wasn’t everything in a fight. 

“Nice throw,” he mumbled as he stood up. His back ached but at least his arm didn’t get hurt at all. 

“Thanks,” War straightened his tunic and brushed his hair out of his eyes. He looked a little pleased with himself, though he was still breathing a little heavily. 

“I just need a moment,” he mumbled. He knew in a real fight, he wouldn’t always have a moment to catch his breath but luckily for him, it wasn't a real fight and with how War was breathing, he figured the other hero could also use a moment. Warriors took his brief moment to breathe to figure out his next move and when he saw the fact that War was standing with his back to the tree, he got an idea. “Okay, I’m good.” 

He didn’t give War a chance to strike first. He used his super speed to run past War and jumped, landing sideways on the tree. With his feet planted on the tree, he launched himself off the tree and towards War, who only looked at with wide eyes. When he was training with the vampires at the estate to get back into shape, one of the vampires he fought with really liked to jump up onto the walls and fly at his opponents. He didn’t manage to do it at the estate so he was both shocked and excited that he actually managed to jump off the tree like that. 

Warriors tackled War to the ground and when they stopped rolling, he pushed himself off of War. Somehow, he was breathless again but he got to his feet nonetheless. 

The other hero had started trying to wiggle out from underneath him the second he’d landed on him, and once Warriors got up he’d rolled onto his knees and pushed himself up, letting out a small cough. “Fuck! That was cool!”

Warriors wasn’t used to War complimenting his vampire powers. He wasn’t used to his brothers complimenting him either but he at least knew them for longer. He felt his face and his ears get a little warm but he knew it wasn’t from their spar so far. 

“Not used to getting that used against me,” his friend wheezed. “I’ve jumped off walls before but damn, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“That’s actually the first time I did something like that. One of the vampires at the estate uses this trick all the fucking time though,” Warriors said as he let out a deep breath. 

After War caught his breath, he took a small step before swinging his leg at his right shoulder. Warriors used his right arm to grab his ankle and keep him there with his foot in the air. The other hero leaned his weight against him until he dropped his leg, and once War’s left foot hit the ground he wasted no time in twisting and swinging his right leg at Warriors’s hip. Warriors hissed when the other heroes’ foot collided with his hip and responded by sending his right fist towards War’s left shoulder. 

The other hero dodged, quickly moving towards him so his back was to Warriors’s chest before he reached out and grabbed the arm he’d just tried to punch him with before he could pull it back. War dropped down to his knee, crouching forward and dragging Warriors with him and he found himself getting pulled over his friend’s shoulder and landing on his back in the grass. Warriors growled and grabbed War’s arm before he could let go and yanked him straight down, making War let go of his arm and flop right on top of him with an “oof!”. 

Warriors pushed him off and he shot back up his feet. His friend had gotten shoved onto his back and was trying to roll onto his side as he broke into a coughing fit.

“Are you okay?” Warriors asked, staying exactly where he was with his back on the ground. The ground felt surprisingly nice. 

War couldn’t answer him, but he kept struggling to roll himself over and push himself off the ground a little so he could paw at his belt for the pouch that held his flask. Warriors watched him carefully, trying to see if he should step in or not. 

“Do you need help?” he asked again. 

His friend shook his head, making a small gagging sound before the coughing finally ended and he was able to get his flask out and take a sip. War put it back in his belt pocket before falling back on his elbows and letting his head hang back with a groan. “Gods above.”

“Let’s take a break,” he mumbled as he reluctantly stood up. The ground was nice but he knew he needed to move to the nice, shady ground under the tree if he didn’t want to risk burning himself. He didn’t think the mild burns that only turned his face pink were a big deal but War didn’t seem to like them and he didn’t want to upset him. He flopped down onto the ground once he walked into the shade. 

The other hero stayed put for a bit, breathing heavily before crawling over and flopping down next to him on his stomach with a small sigh.

Warriors closed his eyes but he didn’t fall asleep. He just let himself relax for a moment before opening them again to look at War. “Was that too much for you?” he asked, unsure if War would actually answer him or not. 

“I can usually do more,” his friend grumbled, turning onto his back so he could more easily look at him. “I shouldn’t need a break.”

“It wasn’t that long ago where you could barely move on your own. Compared to that, you’re doing great,” Warriors said with a smile. 

“We need to get out of this town, your arm is better now and you seem to be feeling better but…” War’s brows furrowed and he looked away for a moment to stare up at the tree above them before continuing quietly. “How are we supposed to get back on the road and travel when I get worn out this quickly? We haven’t even been out here long… What happens when we run into trouble and I can’t defend myself well enough?”

“We can spend a couple more days at the inn, War. It’s not that big of a deal. I miss my friends but I’m not going to force you to travel when you’re not ready to. We don’t have to sacrifice our health or push ourselves unnecessarily for it,” he said gently.

“We’ve already been here, what, a week?” The corners of War’s mouth turned down and he bit his lip. 

“And I don’t mind staying a week more if we have to. I can play more games and win more rupees,” he said with a smirk. “Seriously, I don’t mind. The inn’s been nice! My back is very happy that we don’t have to sleep on the road.” 

That got a small laugh out of him, even if War did still look a little upset with himself. His friend at least turned back to look at him, trying to joke back with him, “As long as you don’t start to get sick of me, since if we’re trapped in the inn there’s not much you can do to escape my rambling.”

“War, sometimes I ask questions that I know will make you ramble,” Warriors mumbled. Sometimes, War did frustrate him because he didn’t seem to handle being the patient very well but he didn’t think it was truly possible for him to get sick of War and never want to deal with him again. 

The other hero sat up, staring at him with wide eyes. “Really??”

“Yeah. Remember when I asked if you ever visited libraries in other eras? I knew if the answer was yes, you would probably talk a lot but I still asked because you usually have something interesting to say,” he said with a shrug. 

“Oh,” War blinked, looking genuinely surprised.

“I think it’s great that you get passionate about something. I have to admit, it’s given me ideas of how I might occupy some time when I can’t be in the military anymore. I might learn other languages from the vampires and I didn’t consider doing that until I met you and you rambled about a book you can’t translate. I might as well, right?” Warriors asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” his friend seemed to relax a little more, looking less shocked. “Learning a first additional language was difficult for me, but learning more after that wasn’t too bad. Plus it’s nice to get information from the source instead of having someone else tell you about it!”

“I’m pretty sure that the scholarly vampire will teach me any other language he knows,” Warriors said, as he tucked his arms behind his head. “Actually, he kind of reminds me of you. You two have different interests but you have the same passion for those interests. I think if you two were in a room together, you would talk for hours.” 

“Oh really?” War raised an eyebrow.

Warriors hummed. “He would be much better at discussing vampire culture and stuff than I am. I’m not really part of it and the vampires here are kind of removed from it but they would still know why it was like before they moved here. As for him, I think he would find the history of your era fascinating. He might even teach you some Labrynnian if you asked him.” 

“Oh that would be interesting,” the other hero nodded to himself. “I’m better at reading some of the languages I know than actually being able to speak them, since I learned most through just looking at books and didn’t really have someone who spoke the language working with me. And it’d be interesting to know about vampire culture!”

“How many languages do you know anyway?” Warriors asked. 

“Um… Three that I feel comfortable communicating in, one other that I’m still getting better at, and then a couple more that I can only read because either I struggle to pronounce the words or it’s just difficult for me to remember the right words to say,” War frowned. “One of the ones I can speak is pretty similar to my first language, which makes it a little confusing sometimes because of the differences.”

“So that’s like… six? I only speak one!” Warriors exclaimed. He knew it wasn’t a competition but suddenly, he suddenly felt like he had to go home and just learn one. He felt so behind! War was a bit older than he was so he had a little more time to learn but he didn’t think that helped his case. 

“Eh- I think it’s like… seven and a half…?” His friend tilted his head to the side as he thought. “…Maybe eight and a half? Nine and a half…?”

Warriors raised his eyebrows. “How do you have time to learn all of these languages?” 

“I was, um… ‘Severely depressed’ feels like it doesn’t cover it all but I guess that’s the best explanation for what happened to me after the war ended,” the other hero mumbled. “I did a good job forcing myself to be normal after I escaped the sorceress, and I did a good job keeping myself together until the end of the war but after that… after Mask left? I don’t know, everything just kinda… fell apart. Zel didn’t want me on active duty anymore, she was worried I’d do something or be reckless I guess, so after I healed from my injuries she essentially put me in time out? I wasn’t happy with her, at all, we got into massive arguments about it and occasionally I could convince her to send me out and do something but after a little bit she’d pull me out again- I found my cats on one of those little missions I begged her to let me go on. And since I live in the castle and she didn’t want me leaving it, there wasn’t much for me to do but go to the library. I do like learning, I always have, my Ma used to tell me she was sorry she couldn’t send me to a real fancy school,” War let out a sad laugh. “But yeah, I needed something to do with my time. Not sure learning so many additional languages helped prove I was mentally stable, but, it’s at least been useful to me.”

Warriors frowned. War was hopefully better now than he was back then, it had been seven years since the war ended for him, but he couldn't help but to worry for him. However, it also made him think about what he was doing at the end of the war. He knew Zelda and Impa worried about him too but they worried for a different reason. At the end of the war, Warriors was still struggling and adjusting to his curse and trying to get blood without having so many monsters to fight. 

“At the end of the war, I was too busy trying to learn how to be a vampire. I was cursed for a while at that point but I was still adjusting. It took me a while to really figure out how I was going to get enough blood and how to be- or how to look normal.” 

“I forgot how to function,” War whispered, bringing his legs up to his chest so he could rest his chin on his knees. “I literally didn’t know what to do with myself. Everything was just… different, and I don’t even have an excuse for how everything crumbled apart. I know I didn’t have your experience with being a vampire, I can’t imagine how hard that must’ve been for you.”

“I think there’s some overlap with how you felt about everything being different. I think it’s fair that you didn’t know what to do after the war. I think I would have still felt like that without the curse because fundamentally, I wasn’t the same person that I was before the war. The old me didn’t have the trauma of people dying because of me or the pressure of trying to save everybody. That was going to be true whether or not I was cursed. I imagine it’s the same for you,” Warriors said quietly, keeping his eyes on the company above him the whole time. 

“I can’t ever be who I was before the war again,” War muttered. “It’s not… It’s not possible. I’m so different now, I can’t trust people, there's a small fear in the back of my mind that strangers are going to just hurt me, I’m… I’m a mess still and I don’t think that will ever go away. And then there’s the nightmares of just everything. I can’t just get over it, and sure there are days where it’s easier to deal with than others but… It’s hard to accept that nothing will ever be normal again. There are days I’m not quite sure I feel like I’ll ever be fully functional again.”

“You’re twenty seven, right? There’s still a long life ahead of you. I don’t think it will be full of suffering.” In fact, Warriors firmly believed that War would eventually find the courage to confess his feelings to Sidney and they would help each other through life. He knew better to say it out loud though. There was a time and place to tease War about Sidney and he didn’t feel as though it was the time or place. 

“I’ve been in pain every day for the past nine years because of that damned sorceress and what she did to me.” His friend brought his legs closer to himself. “It’s a constant reminder of my failures, my arrogance, and all the death and suffering I caused. And I know it’s nothing compared to your vampirism and everything that’s done to turn your life around, but I’ve had so long to get myself back together and I feel like I’ve made no progress. I know I have, physically I’ve recovered an awful lot because I used to look way worse.” War grimaced as he waved a hand to point to himself.

“I don’t think it’s fair to you to compare your pain to my vampirism,” Warriors mumbled. “Your pain is just your own and so is your progress. It’s not… nothing.” 

“It feels like nothing,” he said quietly. “It feels like I’ve barely done anything to fix all the damages from the war, and of course there are things I can never fix like all the lives that were lost. I spent most of the war thinking I could end it if I just handed myself over, there were so many people around me who wanted to hand me over, and when I was captured that solved nothing.” War paused to loosen the collar around his neck and run a hand through his hair, pulling tightly at his curls, before he continued in an even softer voice. “I’ve been told to my face so many times that I shouldn’t have escaped because maybe if I’d stayed longer she would’ve called off the war. I’ve overheard others saying I deserved everything that happened after all the death my existence caused. It feels stupid to be so… trapped by one event, I don’t know if I’ll ever feel… I don’t know. I don’t even know, I’m just frustrated with myself for letting myself completely fall apart when the war was horrible for everyone and when my friends have faced their share of tragedies. A lot of my brothers have had less time to process their grief and trauma than I have and they’re handling it better than I am. Fuck, Mask went through the war and his own shit and sure the kid still has nightmares sometimes but even during the war he was processing shit better than I was. And maybe that just makes me weak, I don’t know.”

“Am I the only one who knows you feel this way?” he asked gently. 

“I’ve mentioned a little bit about it to Sidney, and I think Linkle, Impa, and Zelda have figured it out,” War whispered. “I don’t really… I don’t really talk about this. It’s hard to, and I don’t even know what to say half the time and I can’t even fully admit to myself everything that happened. There’s things I don’t remember but… I don’t like to think about it but at the same time it’s always on my mind, it doesn’t leave me alone.” The other hero tilted his head down to bury his face in his knees and tightened his grip in his hair. “It’s for some reason very easy to talk about things with you. I’m sorry. You asked me about languages, not all of this shit. We’re supposed to be sparring, and having fun or something.”

“It’s fine. Really. I don’t mind,” he said, trying to think very carefully of what to say next. “Maybe when you go home though, you should write a letter and send it somebody or read it out loud. You can get your thoughts in order that way. I mean, I guess you don’t really have to, but I think having somebody at home who knows and is there for you might help you. I don’t mind listening but we don’t know how much time we still have together.” 

“I’ve tried,” his friend mumbled. “I can’t fucking do it, and that sounds ridiculous but I just… can’t. Mentioning the torture training just scares people, and I don’t remember enough of it to be allowed to complain. Everyone in the army dealt with the turncoats and losing friends so that’s not exactly something that uniquely affects me. And I only ever told one person what that damned sorceress did and it was Linkle the day I got back to camp, and I wrote it on a piece of paper and then burned it when she was done reading it and I haven’t been able to actually talk about it since. People have figured it out, but I haven’t been able to tell anyone else.”

Warriors didn’t think continuing the conversation would help, so he sat up and walked over to War, kneeling down beside him. “How about we let go of your hair and we can race instead? That will be a better way to get your mind off it, no?” 

His friend didn’t move for a moment, but eventually he did loosen the hold on his hair and let his hand slide off his head to the ground, letting out a deep breath. War didn’t lift his head but he nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“And this time, I won’t use my vampire powers, unless you actually want to see if you can kind of keep up with me,” Warriors said with a smirk. 

That got War to turn his head at least, resting his cheek on his knees and trying to give him a grin. “Might need to use them, I’ve been told I’m pretty fast.”

Warriors felt his cheeks burn. War was probably right - he could run fast without his powers but he could see during their spar that War was also fast. He wouldn’t be shocked if the other hero was actually faster than him. “You can’t complain if I use my powers and lose then.” 

But, he knew War could poke fun at him for needing to use his powers in the first place. 

“Aw, that’s no fair. What if I just feel like complaining?” His friend laughed, straightening to sit up and grimacing when his back popped.

Warriors rolled his eyes, then shook his head. “How do you actually feel? Do you think you can do two races? We can do one without my powers and one with my powers if you feel up for it.” 

“I think I could?” War frowned as he pushed himself to his feet. “I might have to take a moment between them but I think it’d be good to do two.”

“First one will be without powers then,” he said. “Where should we stop?” 

“Um…” His friend blinked, staring out across the field for a moment before pointing at the line of trees. “Do you see that big one that’s shaped a little funny? Like it looks like some of the lower branches might’ve been cut off?”

“Yeah. From this tree to the weird tree?” Warriors asked once he spotted the tree he thought War was talking about. 

“Yeah,” the other hero nodded. “It seems like a good distance but not too far.” 

For a moment, Warriors wondered if it was a bit too far for War but if the other hero thought he could manage it, then he would trust him. If War couldn’t do it after all, they would figure it out from there. 

“Okay, sounds good to me.” He went over to the tree and stood in front of it while motioning for War to do the same. Once they both at the tree, he started counting down. “Three…. Two… One… GO!” 

War had only lost three races before in his life, not that he ‘officially’ raced people often but when he did he almost always won. The first loss was because he’d been seven trying to outrun his older sister who simply had much longer legs, the second was because he’d been running on a still injured ankle against Wolfie, and the third was because Legend had thrown something at him to trip him on purpose. Maybe he was a little full of himself for thinking it, but even with the state of his lungs he was fairly confident in his ability to win, and when Warriors finished the countdown, War took off. 

He enjoyed running, especially when he wasn’t being chased by something. It felt freeing, in a way, and even though his lungs burned and his knees ached from how fast he was going on somewhat uneven ground, War didn’t stop or slow down. In fact he pushed himself to go faster, because after spending almost a full week in bed moving around like this was wonderful.

Speeding past the tree they’d agreed to stop at, War almost struggled to slow himself down without tripping, but he managed and turned around to wait for Warriors, bracing his hands on his knees and panting heavily.

“Fuck you’re fast!” Warriors shouted as he finally caught up to the tree a good ten seconds later. “Unfair!”

He wanted to say something back but he broke out coughing instead, sitting down hard in the grass for a moment so he’d have an easier time catching his breath. When he could open his mouth without coughing again he just grinned and wheezed out, “I can be faster.”

“So can I,” Warriors said, rolling his eyes. “But I guess you would be faster when you’re not busy coughing your lungs out.”