Chapter Text
Their unplanned race to Maple’s shack and then their rowdy romp in the dirt delay their trip to the castle by a day. The group waiting at Link’s home clearly tries to give them a disapproving look, but they seem to catch on to Legend’s lighter shoulders and settle for heckling them instead.
“I told you to talk to him, not attack him!” Four had ribbed Ravio as they headed to the bathroom to rinse off and change. The words are disapproving, but his expression is far too cheery for them to be legitimately so.
Ravio huffed a laugh. “I made a wager and I had to win it,” he explained simply before slipping into the bathroom after Link.
Link and his companions are not called away by whatever is urging them ahead that night, so they spend another evening crammed together in Link’s little cottage. Link spends most of his time by Ravio’s side, almost clingy compared to his earlier behavior. Though that also means he basically ignores his companions. Ravio can feel their worried glances on his back and does his best to soothe them with surreptitious smiles. Unfortunately, they aren’t well versed in what of Ravio’s behavior is fact or fiction, so it doesn’t seem to put them at ease as much as it should.
They set off for the castle early the next morning before Ravio and Link can get themselves into more trouble, and surprisingly, Link urges Ravio to tag along. All of them eat on the road as they walk. Wild summons little balls of rice filled with meat and mushrooms, seemingly from thin air, and Ravio feels the need to bother him for the recipe when he sees the look on Link’s face when he first tastes them.
When word arrives to the Princess of Link’s return to the castle, she wastes no time in calling them from the front gate and seeing them into one of her many opulent rooms. Servants scurry ahead of them to find seats and refreshments for eight unexpected faces. Ravio notes how the guards hover closer to their group than they ever did when Ravio visited. Their gazes linger on Link’s back, but they refuse to meet his challenging glares as they are ushered into Zelda’s chosen meeting room.
It is a beautiful place. polished white stones reach up to the high ceiling, covered by massive, hand-embroidered tapestries. There is one hung on each of the four walls, depicting scenes with the goddesses, Din, Nayru, Farore, and Hylia. Ravio wonders if this choice was purposeful; if the Princess could also feel the same divine touch on each of these odd heroes that Ravio could.
As they all file in and the last of the servants and guards reluctantly shuffle out, Link comes to stand in front of Zelda. He bows low before her, stiff and formal, even as she frets with her skirts and hovers her hands over his shoulders. “My Princess, I have returned,” he says with regal, noble flair. He straightens his spine. “Not for long, I’m afraid, I-”
He is cut off abruptly as Zelda reaches forward and pulls him into a strong hug. Her grip on the back of his tunic is so tight that it wrinkles, and Link freezes there, head pressed against her chest. “I was so worried,” she breathes into his hair. Her voice and hands tremble as she holds him. Link’s companions avert their eyes respectfully from the Princess’s show of vulnerability. She is shameless in her relief, and it is a long moment before she releases him. When she pulls back, she keeps hold of him, cupping his face before he can escape. She looks him carefully over for any new scars. Upon finding none, she lets loose a sigh, stepping back and returning her hands to her sides.
Link gawks at her as if he can’t believe she would have been so worried. Ravio is beginning to realize that Link might truly be an idiot.
Good thing they don’t share that trait.
“Where have you been?” Zelda asks next. Though she is standing straight and regal again, her voice still shakes. “Are you unharmed? What do you mean ‘not for long?’” Ravio doesn’t blame her for the barrage of questions.
Link manages to rehinge his jaw and unfreeze his posture. “Erm… About that,” he says, motioning towards his companions. He gives Ravio a glance before he continues, “It seems a new evil is brewing and I have been called, along with the other esteemed Heroes of Hyrule, both past, future, and beyond, to stop it.” He motions to the other companions. “I would announce them each by name, but we all share it. Each of us is known as Link in our respective kingdoms.”
Zelda takes a moment to process that information, her brow furrowing as she looks over each of his companions. “I thought you all felt strange,” she says quietly, pressing fingers gloved in delicate satin to her chin. “You are heroes chosen by the gods, bearers of the Triforce of Courage,” she announces in a much louder voice, “I’m… I’m so sorry for my rudeness. Truly, it is an honor to meet all of you.” She bows low herself. Though, it does nothing to hide the pink at the tips of her ears.
Warrior straightens at the gesture, dipping his head for a moment before thinking better of it. He looks distinctly uncomfortable and out of his depth. Perhaps princesses don’t bow in his Hyrule. Lorule is the same; humility shown by royalty is weakness. It is mind-boggling to think another Hyrule in the past or future or perhaps along a thread of time completely detached from their own might share more with Lorule than its mirror.
Warrior clears his throat, recovering quickly from his shock. “Oh no, the honor is ours,” he is quick to say as the princess lifts her head, “I know that this is quite shocking.”
The princess nods. “And for so many of you to be called together… things must be dire.” Her voice holds an edge of dread.
Time steps forward, straight-backed and confident. “We can’t be sure,” he says quickly, “Actually, we were wondering if you knew anything about this new threat. We have been left rather in the dark about everything.”
“I’m afraid not,” the Princess says, her expression dour, “Although there has been an increase in monsters around the kingdom as of late, I had no idea things were so serious. The gods have been silent, in my dreams and those of the sages. I am sorry I can’t tell you more.”
Still Time nods. “Thank you regardless, Your Highness. It seems that this evil wishes to lie low for the time being,” he says, “We will do what we can to rid you of the monsters while we remain here. Could you give us information about where they have been sighted most frequently?”
While the princess busies herself with speaking with Time and Warrior, Ravio turns to Link. “And you couldn’t just tell me that yourself?” he whispers, “Instead of all this vague tip-toeing?”
“You would have thought I was crazy!” Link hisses back, “Zelda… Zelda can feel it.”
“Do you think I can’t?” Ravio huffs crossing his arms over his chest, “Why do you think I guessed at family? You feel the same. Not to mention the resemblance.”
“I don’t look like any of these dopes!” Link blurts, drawing attention from his companions.
Sky perks up. “You think we look similar?” he asks. He approaches them, practically beaming. “I thought perhaps I saw something in all of you, but I feared I was biased.”
“At the very least, Twi’s got Time’s massive nose,” Wind says. He yelps as Twilight’s hand comes down on the top of his head and ruffles his already wild hair fiercely.
“I always thought Four and Wind looked pretty similar,” Wild points out.
Four looks between himself and Wind, brow furrowed. “Not that Wind isn’t… adora- uhm, handsome. Are you sure you’re not just seeing our height?” he asks.
“And your attitude,” Wild nods.
Four watches Wind attempt to bite Twilight’s fingers as he pulls them from his hair. His face crumples and he gives Wild an absolutely wounded look.
“I can’t quite place my finger on it,” Ravio continues, biting back a grin, watching as Link’s face grows as stormy as it is red, “It’s a little of everything, I think. Your faces, the way you hold yourselves, and then something a little deeper. You’re like brothers.”
Sky, Wild, Wind, and even Hyrule brighten at those words. Link looks at him miserably. “Now look what you’ve done,” he hisses, even as Sky’s hand lands firmly on his shoulder and squeezes.
“Brothers is the perfect word,” Sky chimes, positively pleased, “I’m so glad another thinks so.”
Though Link puts on a grumpy front, Ravio still catches the way his shoulders relax and he shoots an almost hopeful look Sky’s way. Then Wind lets loose a screech as he is trying to climb Twilight like a tree to exact revenge for his mussed hair. Warrior looks up from his discussion and frowns. This prompts Hyrule to try and get him down to keep them from getting in trouble, though in his attempt to pull Wind from Twilight’s back, he only manages to unbalance Twilight and dump them all onto the floor in a heap.
This draws the attention of Zelda and Warrior. The ruckus earns them a sorely disappointed frown from Time that sends them all scrambling to their feet as if to pretend nothing happened at all.
Link looks at Ravio, his expression dramatically beleaguered. “Do you see what I have to deal with? Absolute misery,” he says, but the undercurrent of warmth in his voice gives him away.
By nightfall, they have returned to Link’s house with a laundry list of locations to visit to clear out lingering monsters. Though, that is left for the next day as they settle in for dinner and rest again. Link is still distant from the ruckus, stubbornly glued to Ravio’s hip, or else disappearing into unoccupied parts of the home and rebuffing attempts at conversations and games. Though Ravio can see the struggle, the same kind of wavering he suffered from with Link. He can see the way he wants to reach out.
Ravio manages to pull Link outside under the guise of checking their many tunics and underclothes on the lines strung outside from tree to tree. Link is surprisingly pliant as Ravio leads him past the porch and under the fluttering fabric of the heroes’ shared wardrobe for privacy. The night is quiet, only the sound of cricket song interrupting the rhythmically rustling leaves in the breeze.
Reluctant to break such a peaceful silence, Ravio whispers, “Why are you pushing them away?” He nods towards the warm light streaming through the cottage windows.
Link grimaces. “You know why,” he hisses back.
Ravio supposes he does. Link had basically shouted it the previous day during their conversation on the road. It ends and they leave or they die and Link is left with nothing. Ravio is now certain that Link is an idiot.
He sends a prayer to Lolia thanking her for not cursing him with the same terrible affliction. “Link, they aren’t going to leave you,” he says slowly, like explaining to a child.
“What do you mean?” Link spits, insulted, “What else could they possibly do? It’s not like I can keep them here. They all have lives, and families in their own times and Hyrules. When this is over, they’re going back and I’ll never see them again.”
Ravio squints at Link. “Link, they’ll stay with you,” he says, “They’ve been with you from the beginning, here.” He presses a delicate finger to Link’s sternum. “I know you know the legends. You’ve read the records. You carry their soul. It’s yours.”
“Okay, fine.” Link swipes Ravio’s finger away. “That’s touching, but it’s not like I’ll be able to see them again. They’re dead, or they won’t be born for hundreds of years, or they’re in a completely different universe entirely. You can say all these pretty words, but the basic truth is that after this, they’re gone.”
“That is true” Ravio says, “So what? Are you really going to squander this opportunity? To spend time with them? Sure, it’ll end one day, but you’ll still carry them with you. You’ll carry everything with you. In your memories.” He presses his fingers back to Link’s chest and dares to press down fully with his palm against his sternum. “In your soul. Not just them either, mind you. Everything, everyone.” He knows that Link has had such a terrible experience with loss, something Ravio will probably never be able to fathom. Loss is part of life though, and it can’t be run from, not even Ravio could escape it.
Pain flashes in Link’s eyes. He reaches up and grasps Ravio’s hand with shaking fingers. “What’s the… what’s the point?” he mutters, “If it will all end?” It sounds like a question he has asked a thousand times before.
“I… I don't have an answer for that," Ravio admits. Link huffs and begins to turn away, only stopping as Ravio snatches his hand back, squeezing with all his might. "But, Link, if it has to happen, why make it miserable on yourself?" he asks, "Why not make the most of it? Even if it's going to end, if it's pointless, even if it was doomed from the start, it's still something. It’s still meaningful."
Link blinks at him, and Ravio pulls away, suddenly unsure of himself. He only had a passing relationship with loss, after all. "At least… I think so," he says.
Link stops him from going far, grasping back fiercely. “How is this so easy for you?” he hisses. His eyes are pleading, not accusatory as Ravio would expect. “You know, nothing I do matters, right? Not just this quest, every quest, it doesn’t mean anything in the end. Ganon comes back, things get worse. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Ravio watches him. There is horror in the news, yes, though the kind of existential horror that Ravio has already had to wrestle with in the past. He is Link’s mirror, the branching path leading to failure after failure. He is the hero without courage, without a Master Sword, without purpose, without meaning. There was no divine prophecy foretelling his victory over darkness; he had failed long before he had been born. He made peace that there was nothing he could do to help Lorule long before Yuga appeared, the tear between worlds was discovered, and Ravio met Link. He is sure things will decline again long after both he and Link are gone. Ravio’s role was of no consequence before or after himself.
He realizes exactly what Link is afraid of.
For once, Ravio actually feels qualified. “Well, that’s unfortunate,” he says, “I don’t see what that has to do with you.”
“Wha- It has everything to do with me!” Link snaps, “Everything I’ve done, everything I’ve fought for amounts to absolutely nothing.”
“That’s not true,” Ravio says first, calm and gentle. Link takes a breath like he plans to argue, but Ravio speaks faster. “I’m pleased to say that the fate of Hyrule or any kingdom does not rest solely on your shoulders.”
Link blinks at him. He looks so helplessly confused. Ravio cannot blame him too much for it. Link has lived so long with so much riding on his success, the fate of entire kingdoms, that it must be hard to fathom that perhaps some things lay out of his control.
“Link, nothing is permanent. The Hyrule before your adventure has changed for the better, and that means it might change for the worse as well, and you can’t do anything about it because you’re not permanent either.” Ravio figures he might need the reminder. He isn’t entirely certain Link is aware he can actually die, that he is not invincible, an eternal warrior at Hylia’s behest. One day, he will be a thing of the past, just like the heroes before him.
“And again,” Link hisses, gripping Ravio’s hands hard enough that his own shake, “Then what was even the point?”
“Do you see what’s around you?” Ravio asks. His tone is gentle, and his words are easy and simple. Link is silent and he looks as if Ravio has given him an impossible puzzle to solve.
The world continues like it is trying to remind him; a gust of wind whispers past them, setting the trees rustling, and wicking moisture off of gently swaying fabric around them. “This orchard is the point, the people in Kakariko are the point, you, you are the point.” For once, it feels so easy to hold Link’s gaze, to hold him here in this moment. “This is all here, now, because of you. And isn’t that grand? You did this, you brought it to us. And maybe it will mean nothing to people thousands, maybe only hundreds of years from now, but those people mean nothing to us. Who in their right mind is thinking that far ahead, anyway?”
Ravio takes in Link’s still wide-eyed stare, his speechless gaping mouth and preens. For once, he has the hero of snark and wit speechless. “To me… what you did… it means everything,” Ravio says. He feels his mouth curve up into a smile, even as his cheeks start to burn a little. He had never gotten to say so, had he? How much Link had changed everything about him, about his world. He had been too bogged down by what he thought Link wouldn’t want to see, that he hadn’t thought about what he would need to hear.
“I know I’m not much. No…god nor noble, nor divine hero, but I see what you did for us, for Hyrule and Lorule and all those other places and you could say it would all end tomorrow and it would still mean the world to me. I don’t care if it’s nothing in the end. Everything is nothing one day, Link.”
“So, I’m just supposed to be okay with that?” Link’s voice comes eventually, quiet and hoarse into the night air.
Ravio lets loose a breath. “You don’t have to be happy about it,” he settles on, after some careful contemplation, “But you can’t just let this swallow you whole. You can’t keep pushing things away because they won’t be there forever. Precisely because they won’t be there forever. You’re just hurting yourself more.”
Link lets go of his hands and Ravio is expecting to be rebuffed again, expecting to be told to know his place. Of course, he could never fathom the depths of responsibility that Link shouldered. He could never carry the weight of a divine mantle. He tries not to curl up and shy away and tries to stand strong behind his convictions.
But then, Link grasps him by the shoulders and pulls him into his chest. Ravio stiffens as Link’s arms wind around his back and then he shoves his chin in the crook between Ravio’s neck and shoulder. Link trembles against him, and Ravio melts a little into him, lifting his own arms up to return the hug.
They stand there, a little stiff, and a little awkward. Link is shaking like he’s been zapped by a buzz blob, and Ravio’s heart is trying to pound itself out of his chest. Yet Ravio has never felt such warmth. After a stretch of just holding each other, and then another because neither of them quite knows the right way to let go, Link pulls away from him.
He keeps his hands on Ravio’s shoulders, eyes trained on his face. There is a very pronounced flush across his cheeks, even in the dim light, and Ravio is thankful he isn’t the only one a little flustered. “O-okay. Fine,” Link says, in response to Ravio’s unasked question, “S-since you won’t be here forever.”
“No,” Ravio agrees, “But I’ll be here for as long as I’m able. I swear to you. I want to make the most of it… with you.”
Link nods once. He lets Ravio go and his hands hover awkwardly in the air like he isn’t quite sure what to do with them. There is a silence between them, not comfortable, but not tense. There is something hanging in the air that neither of them can name, or perhaps, they don’t want to quite yet. Maybe they will one day. They will have to pursue, push and prod at this unnamable thing now tethering the both of them together. Ravio decides as he takes Link’s hand and leads him back into the warm light of the house, that it can be a puzzle they tackle together. Blind, lost idiots, but at least together, hand in hand.
-Epilogue-
Ravio gets a little over a week with Link and his companions. Throughout that time, he is able to see the changes in Link, however small. He doesn’t immediately stick fast to his kindred companions, but he lets them dig their fingers into the multitudinous cracks in his walls. They find them with ease, drawn by the call of their shared souls. If someone like Ravio was able to weasel his way in, then he knows these intrepid, divinely blessed heroes will have no problem doing the same.
Eventually, they leave through a portal splitting the air between two apple trees, and while they take their color and sound with them, and leave an ocean of worry in their wake, Ravio finds himself nonetheless glad for the quiet. All these talks with Link, and all this time spent puzzling and digging have only uncovered more things to think about. Mostly, he thinks again of Lorule. He hesitates to call it home, for it has never quite held the warmth and security that Link and his little cottage have granted him. Still, he was that kind of comfort for another, however unqualified he was for it, and he cannot leave things as they are.
As sore as he may still be, Ravio has cherished Queen Hilda since the moment they met. He cannot leave her alone, confused, and hurting with no explanation. He knows exactly how it feels and he wouldn’t wish that kind of pain even on the dastardly Yuga. No matter how hurt he still is, no matter how afraid he might be to face her with everything laid bare, he cannot allow his oldest friend and beloved queen to languish in such a fate.
He sits down at Link’s table with ink and a quill already set out. Small steps first; he will start with a letter, an honest letter with a piece of his soul as a peace offering to his friend and Queen. Then, perhaps, they can try a visit and he can offer her the rest. With a little more honesty, and a few deserved apologies, maybe the two of them can find some stable ground to stand on again.
He finds himself feeling optimistic as he puts pen to paper. It may be hard, Hilda is stubborn and guarded, perhaps more so than Link, but with persistence, they can do it. Ravio feels like he has gotten quite adept at finding things, after all.