Chapter Text
They land in Legend’s Hyrule a handful of switches after being at Lon Lon Ranch. As is usual, Four is sick and faints. Wild looks to something and locks up, eyes going blank. He’s been trapped in a memory again — not too unusual.
It’s a good thing they’ve landed here — Madam Syrup the potions witch is within an hour’s walk and being able to stock up on various potions in bulk is incredibly practical.
“Finally,” Legend groans, dragging himself into a sitting position. “I never thought I’d be so glad to see my own fucking apple orchard.”
Time hoists Wind onto his back, taking care to not jostle his broken leg too much. “We’d best get to your house, then. Wind could do with sitting down. Also with a red and a green potion if you’ve got any.”
“I should,” Legend says, brushing the apple pollen off their tunic. “Sheerow can always bring a note to Madam Syrup if we don’t. Irene can drop them off for us. It’s not like she’s overly busy or anything.”
Hyrule eyes Legend critically. His voice and gait are steady, but Hyrule knows that all of them are low on magic after that last battle and Hyrule isn’t sure if he’s actually seen Legend asleep in the past few days.
They could all do with a good night’s sleep and a hearty meal right about now.
Hyrule gently grabs Wild by the arm and leads him towards Legend’s house close by. After some trial and error, they’ve figured out that they can usually guide Wild around during a memory given he’s not outwardly distressed. In his peripheral he watches Twilight help a barely conscious Four onto Sky’s back.
“Ravio?” Legend calls through the open front door, gesturing for all of them to enter. “Do you know how irresponsible it is to leave the front door open?”
Hyrule frowns. Legend’s voice appears to magically amplified in some way … or is it his aura extending past its normal confines. In any case, that is not something Legend should be doing with this empty magic reserves.
A hustle and bustle from inside the shop-slash-house leads to a man with tan freckled skin clad in a long, purple robe appearing in the front room.
“Link!” Ravio exclaims. “You’re back! You’ve brought with you … more people than your note mentioned.”
“Hylia decided we needed a couple more,” Legend says gruffly, but his tone is fond when he continues. “These are my pre- and reincarnations from across time, space and apparently whole universes of existence.”
Ravio nods like he understands exactly what Legend means.
Then Legend’s tone softens even more — Hyrule can’t see his face, but he bets there is a small smile there. Legend’s married to Ravio after all— a fact he’d revealed to Hyrule that night on the roof (“If Four knows, you might as well know”) —and it’d make sense for him to be a bit nicer— especially if the way he had talked about him was any indication. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more than send a note before I left. The Goddess doesn’t seem to care for patience. I basically met Time, Twilight and Warriors five minutes before being whisked away through some horribly slimy-feeling portal. Did my letter arrive here? There was some interdimensional mailman hunting us down a few weeks ago.”
The same warm feeling appears in his chest as when he saw Four hug his grandpa before leaving, or when he sees Time hug Malon from behind. There’s truly something reassuring about seeing his fellow heroes find happiness and fulfilling relationships in any form, whether they be platonic, familial or romantic. He’s glad Legend has this. Glad he has something to come home to, something to look forward to. He’s not sure if he wants any of it for himself, but Hylia herself should know, he’s happy for the others.
Then the words in Lorulean hits his ears and Hyrule startles.
“—and I’m so glad to be home, even if it’s only for a couple of days. I struggle to sleep at night because I can’t tell if this is all a dream or not. I don’t want to tell the others and have them reassure me, because non of them would get it . Everything hurts and I ran out of my arthritis potion—”
Hyrule has heard enough. Unbridled white-hot rage burns in his chest and Hyrule elbows his way to the front of the group. When he opens his mouth he takes care to speak in Lorulean, because while he has just heard of Legend’s secrets, it doesn’t mean that he has to reveal them to the rest of the group — at least not right away.
“What do you mean you’ve run out of your arthritis potion?”
Legend startles and for a brief moment Hyrule feels a sick sort of satisfaction that he’s managed to catch his predecessor off guard. But he doesn’t let the expression stop him.
“What do you mean you’ve got arthritis?! You didn’t think to— oh, I don’t know — mention it to the fucking healer before he pours all of his magic into you on multiple occasions? You know as well as me, Legend, that healing magic like mine doesn’t work on arthritis! I’ve kept pouring all of my magic into you — and don’t you take this as me minding healing you! I will always heal your injuries! But? I’ve done all of that for nothing? You’ve been deceiving me to make me think I did something — that I made a fucking difference? … You should have told me! You should at least have told me! And for the medication? Are you not aware that we can get that in almost every single Hyrule we’ve landed in so far? My fucking Hyrule is a wasteland and we could still have easily gotten it for you! ”
Hyrule doesn’t notice that he’s started glowing, that his eyes have turned bright or that his teeth feel sharper in his mouth than usual until Legend stares at him in something akin to horror.
His magic reserves flicker dangerously and he lets the glow fade and humanity reclaim him once again. Panting, he smiles sheepishly. Hylia above , this is why he doesn’t get angry more often. It’s so exhausting .
“I didn’t know you spoke Lorulean,” Legend says quietly in said language. “I didn’t mean to keep it from you or anything. I’m not … ah, I suppose I’m not used to being vulnerable, even after knowing you all for weeks and months. Besides, who gets fucking rheumatoid arthritis at nineteen?”
“Lots of people,” Hyrule says evenly. The others are shuffling outside with one of them— Sky? —muttering out a we’ll give you three some privacy.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Link,” Ravio says quietly. “We’ve all got our own body quirks. Like your friend here the fairy — sorry, I don’t believe I caught your name?”
“Also Link. But you can call me Hyrule,” Hyrule says, then his eyebrows furrow. “Hang on, how can you tell I’m not fully Hylian?”
Ravio laughs. It’s a quiet, restrained thing, but clearly genuine. “First off, you shed part of your Hylian form just now. Plus, I spent a lot of time around fairies and great fairies during the War of Ages. Your aura feels the same.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Legend interrupts. “Since when do you speak Lorulean, and why didn’t you tell me?”
“I forgot,” Hyrule says, and it’s the truth. Around the others he mostly speaks Hylian or Common. The only people he’s ever spoken Lorulean with are Dawn and Aurora. “As for how? I guess after the royal family adopted me they deemed me sufficiently in-the-family to learn. Learning Lorulean has been a thing in the royal family for generations. I started learning maybe … six years ago? I can’t read a word of it, but then again, I can’t really read. The letters just float around.”
“Adopted,” Legend says. “You’re royalty? Heh, welcome to the team, I suppose, if it’s the day for revealing secrets.”
“I think it’s time that we let your fellow heroes in and for you to take some anti-inflammatories, Mr Hero,” Ravio says. “One of your companions has a broken leg. I’ll send a letter off with Sheerow to see if Irene can kindly send us some red and green potions.”
“I’ll go get them,” Hyrule offers, already halfway to the door. “You’ve got a few minutes if you want to, ah, reacquaint yourself.”
He closes the door with a smirk, Legend sputtering behind him.
“Do you mind telling us what that was about?” Warriors asks as Hyrule settles down on the grass in front of Legend’s house. “You don’t usually get so angry about — well, anything really.”
“Oh, just a detail he oh-so-conveniently forgot to tell me about,” Hyrule says easily. “Really he should know better than to keep secrets from the healer. And before you ask, it’s up to him if he tells the rest of you or not.”
“The glowing thing you did?” Wind calls out from a couple of metres away, leg casually resting Twilight’s thigh to keep it elevated. “That was so fucking cool!”
“Language,” Time says automatically, but he doesn’t look too peeved about it. “Speaking of language, …?”
“It’s Lorulean,” Hyrule explains. “It’s been taught in my Hyrule’s royal family for generations, so when I was adopted I started learning. Now that I think about it, the reason why it’s taught might just be sitting inside the house behind us. Huh. Should probably tell my sisters about that.”
Time raises an eyebrow. “Adopted?”
Hyrule nods. “I was adopted after my first adventure, but I only properly started staying after I rescued Aurora during my second adventure. It’s a bit of a transition staying in one place after travelling for so long.”
“That’s cool!” Wind says, looking like he wants to bounce over to where Hyrule is sitting. Alas, the voes of a broken leg and strict older siblings trying to keep said broken leg stable. “So you’re Dawn and Aurora’s younger brother, then?”
“Sure,” Hyrule says, “I’m still getting used to the thought, to be honest.”
“Do you think we can go inside now?” Twilight asks, looking ever so slightly uncomfortable. Hyrule doesn’t blame him. He’s got Sky passed out and resting on one shoulder and Wind’s leg occupying his lap. “I think Sky is out of commission for the day. And Wind ought to be out of commission for the duration it takes to heal up his leg.”
Hyrule nods. “Sure. I just gave Legend a moment alone so he could write a letter to Madam Syrup. Ravio’s probably helping him to see if he can haggle the price down.”
It’s not exactly the truth, but Legend’s relationship is kind of a half-secret, and Hyrule doesn’t mind giving an excuse to allow Legend to catch up a bit of physical affection.
He moves over to Four as the others figure out how to get Wind and Sky into the house. Wild appears to have woken up from his memory and he’s not visibly distressed, so Hyrule quietly hopes for it having been either an insignificant or even a happy one.
Four is laying flat on the ground, limbs sprawled starfish over the grass, eyes closed.
“Hey,” he whispers, and the eyes open, taking a few seconds to flicker between the different colours before eventually settling on red. Tears gather in the tears of his eyes, and Hyrule reaches out a hand to pet through Four-Red’s hair. Of all of them, Red is typically the one who gets the most upset about the portals.
(“I don’t like feeling nauseous,” Red had revealed the morning after that night at Lon Lon Ranch when Hyrule had asked the Colours about health matters. He’s not stupid enough to assume all of them have the same problems when they don’t even look all that similar. Like siblings, sure, but not identical. “It doesn’t make sense, but I just get so panicky and so upset and I know it’s stupid but I want to do nothing more than to crawl out of my skin.”)
“It’s okay, Red,” Hyrule whispers, taking care to not let any of the others hear him. Red needs all the comfort he can get, but only if he knows it’s safe to reveal his name. “I know you’re feeling poorly, but it’ll pass in a moment and then we’ll go inside and get some reset. We’ve had a tough couple of days, haven’t we?”
Four nods, but it’s the only part of the body that appears to move. Whether or not Red is in control of the whole body or if it’s due to the motion sickness, Hyrule’s not sure. But it doesn’t really matter. What matters is Red’s emotional state.
“Will you keep petting my hair?” Four-Red asks. “It’s helping me calm down. The others are asleep and I can’t wake them because they’re sleeping off the portal sickness but it’s just so quiet in my head and none of the others actually talked to me. I was just laying here trapped with my own thoughts.”
“Of course I’ll keep you company,” Hyrule says. “I don’t mind. It’s nice being out here.”
Someone casts a shadow on the ground in front of them and Hyrule recognises Time’s outline.
“Will you two be fine out here on your own or do you need help to get inside?”
“We’ll be okay,” Hyrule tells Time, keeping his hand going at a consistent rhythm of carding through Four’s hair. “We’ll come inside the moment Four’s nausea calms down enough for him to walk.”
“Alright,” Time says. “Don’t hesitate to call for help if you need it.”
Hyrule waits until the front door closes behind Time before he brings all of his attention back onto Four.
Red’s still fronting and looks like he will be for the foreseeable future. But there are visible signs of improvement; his skin no longer looks unhealthily pale and his eyes are moving around more actively.
“It’s okay, Red,” he says calmingly. “I know you’re tired and upset. The moment you feel capable, we’ll get you inside. I’m pretty sure I saw a comfy sofa you can nap on.”
“I’m not sure I can walk,” Four confesses. “I’m not really in control of the body right now. It’s one of the others, but I can’t reach them. A nap sounds good though. Green’s been really tired and it’s affecting the body.”
“I’ll carry you,” Hyrule says. “You’re not that heavy and it’s not far.”
Four smiles then, a little faint and a little lethargic. “Thank you. Now, please tell me, how was the reunion between our second happily married couple?”