Chapter Text
“You’ve…done this before?” Ladybug asked, a bit sceptical as she unfolded the paraglider on top of the Citadel, staring down at the somewhat distant Tarry Town beneath them.
“Oh yeah, loads of times,” Carapace said, entirely unconcerned. “From way higher heights and way further distances. If you aren’t shield surfing down Hebra, you’re gliding.”
“And shield surfing is…?”
“Snowboarding, but way more fun,” Carapace laughed, running to the edge of the building and backflipping off it.
“Whoa, Cara-!” Ladybug gasped, rushing to the side and leaning over. Carapace had already deployed his and was floating gently towards the distant Tarry Town.
Ladybug glanced around, taking a deep breath. Nothing to swing her Yoyo onto here…
She got up onto the parapets and jumped, deploying her own and wincing slightly as her shoulders strained with the sudden jolt as the paraglider caught air, and tilting herself forward to guide herself towards Carapace’s wake, following behind him.
“Ladybug!! Carapace!!” They heard shouting. From a yard just outside the Citadel stood Link, Ryuko and Bunnyx, waving as they floated away.
Ladybug would’ve waved back, if her grip wasn’t occupied by the paraglider.
It would only take them a short fifteen minutes to land on its lower side, away from the pillar where a ring of homes was built and there seemed to be some kind of public rail transportation between the lower lying town and the upper.
Carapace and Ladybug landed down in the middle of town, nobody seemingly paying any mind as they did so.
“So this is where you were during the Lynel incident?” Ladybug asked, stashing her borrowed paraglider away onto her back.
“Yep. I owe the Inn keeper some money for my stay and for keeping my stuff,” Carapace said, staring down the street. “It’s this way.”
Thus began a day of running errands.
After going to the Inn and paying the Zora apparently in charge, Carapace got his backpack from under a bed, which had three different shields hanging off it, stacked like scales. He stopped out of the way for a moment, shuffling through it to see if everything he had was still inside.
“Paranoid one’s gonna break?” Ladybug asked, curious when she saw his collection of shields. “Or are they for shield surfing?”
“Surfing!” Carapace said, reaching and pulling a rounded golden shield. “This one’s great for spinny tricks,” He picked out another, though it seemed thinner with some tassels hanging off the top of it. “This one’s a real speedster.” Then the final, which was seemingly mostly steel. “This one is my everyday ride, super durable, super reliable. Gets me from point A to point B! Rode this thing down from Hebra Peak more than once.”
“What were you doing all this time? Just Shield surfing?” Ladybug asked, curious as they walked out of the Inn.
“Surfing and bushcraft, I suppose,” Carapace said with a shrug, starting to wander the small shopping district. “Y’know, hunting, meat processing, chopping wood, maintaining a cabin, not dying. Real rugged stuff.”
“Not dying is very rugged,” Ladybug said, smiling thinly.
“Master Selmie said that surfing on tall grass is pretty fun too,” Carapace recalled. “Down for a try if we find a good hill?”
Ladybug shrugged. “Sure, sounds like fun!”
“Oh, it absolutely is,” Carapace smiled fondly.
-
Workspace Lab 42!
The space was wide open, split into four separate large rooms with only heavy, non-cloth curtains between them so they could be moved to make a given workspace larger if need be. There weren’t any windows, but stark white lighting high above their heads, shining on smooth concrete flooring and bare exposed brick walls. Despite the objectively dungeon-y description of such a place, there was a plethora of noise and chatter, indistinct though it was as archeologists and other such academics went this way and that like worker bees in a hive.
Chat had asked a passing maid to take him to Lab 42, and she brought him to one corner.
“Chat! Dear!” Zelda called over as soon as she saw him enter, in the midst of a tea and pastry break, which she quickly set down to approach her new son, clipboard under an armpit. “Oh, sweet boy, how are you feeling? Was the trip down alright? Do you need to sit?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” Chat assured her, walking straight to the queen, dressed currently in pants, boots, a powder blue button up top and lab coat. He walked straight into her arms.
Zelda, for a moment, hesitated, but quickly returned Chat’s embrace, tossing her clipboard to the nearest researcher to fully hug Chat with full strength. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Chat.” She said softly.
She didn’t let go until he did. “Come, I wanted to show you the latest we’ve unearthed from the Zonai ruins!” She exclaimed excitedly, holding an arm across his shoulders as she took the clipboard back from the researcher she’d quickly handed it to. “We believe it might be some sort of control panel and we may have recreated it to an astounding degree of accuracy!”
“What makes you think this is a control panel?” Chat asked curiously, walking around the recreated object. It was a fairly large wooden box, with ivory buttons along its front and a series of wires and such inside.
“This, when plucked, makes a similar sound to a Guardian on the attack,” Zelda explained, reaching and pulling one string like a harp. “It’s not quite the same, but we believe there is a lost mechanism to pluck these. We believe that this is a Zonai precursor to what was used within the Guardians, and that the ancient Sheikah used a similar item to control the earliest versions of the Guardians before creating the Sheikah Slate.”
“You use that word a lot,” Chat noticed. “We ‘believe’, is nothing certain?”
“That’s simply a habit of the work,” Zelda said, smiling sheepishly. “Nothing in this distant past is certain, so to feign certainty is more or less an outright lie. It’s much the same with all sciences.”
Chat went up the recreation, pressing down on the buttons.
They weren’t connected to anything, but did depress and spring back up. He kept pressing, brow furrowing as fingers flew over soundless keys. This was…familiar.
“Say, Mom…?” Chat asked, turning to look at the woman.
She was still smiling. “Yes, dear?”
“In the Guardians…you said they made a similar sound, right? Did they have like a…a hammer, on the inside?”
“They don’t make the sound without being in attack mode,” Zelda explained, looking thoughtfully. “And there’s quite a few components, we’re not certain which wires specifically make the sound and which make it move, or if they play a dual role in making the sound and moving its mechanics within. I do recall something within the guardians that always seemed near the strings, I’m not sure I would call it a ‘hammer’ though.”
“Do you have any spares? Maybe…one for every key on here?” Chat asked, pressing the soundless keys again.
“Yes, we have a supply in order to repair the guardians!” Zelda said, sounding excited. Had Chat come to a revelation?! “Please, someone get them! An entire box- no, two entire boxes’ worth!”
“Just enough for the board, and maybe ten extra?” Chat quickly corrected her before the researchers could scramble to obey. “It’s…” He looked back at the ‘control panel’. “Let’s say one hundred even! And a tuning fork!”
The scrambling only heightened, and they were off.
-
“Looking for this book,” Carapace said, showing the cashier his note, written in Hylian which he couldn’t read. “And probably the next two or three after, if you have them.”
“They’re probably not for you, huh?” The cashier, a rito, said as she pulled the paper closer.
“You can tell?” Carapace asked with a sheepish smile.
“Yep. You gave this to me sideways as if I could read it like that.” The Rito chuckled. “Ah, the Seafarer's Adventures. That’s popular, apparently they’re the Prince’s favorite.”
“Both prince’s,” Carapace said. “Apparently, Adrien forgot his copies at home and Chat can’t get enough. He finished the first in like a day and a half.”
“That first one’s a real page turner.” She said, “Wouldn’t be the first to come ask for the second one after only a day or two. I’ll get those copies out in two shakes of a tail feather, oooone moment please.”
The cashier went towards the many shelves and in amongst perusing bibliophiles within the store to fetch the requested books. As she did so, Carapace was oddly…struck, by how ordinary this all felt.
This bookstore had the same sort of layout he’d expect in a bookstore from Paris. Shelves upon shelves of brand new volumes, paperbacks and hardcovers, with a few stacked on tables, on display, kids reading material and colouring books within reach of tiny hands…
He could imagine Chris right there, next to the little Goron kid currently sitting in the middle of an isle with a geology book open, not even realising he was in the way.
He hadn’t much of this sort of ordinary domestic experience on the mountain, and he’d only stayed one night at the Rito Village, and the rest of his time in travel.
Waiting in a bookshop was a lot different than fending off wild wolves as Selmie butchered a moose by herself.
“Contemplating?” Ladybug asked, breaking Carapace from his revere as she approached, armed now with her own harness and paraglider.
“You can tell?” He asked, head tilting as he once more scanned the store.
“It’s sort of inevitable, walking to something so ordinary after…everything.” Ladybug admitted. “I was having similar thoughts when we passed that HFC getting here.”
“HFC?”
“Hyrule Fried Chicken.”
Carapace snorted into his hand, stifling a loud guffaw in the mostly quiet bookstore.
The Rito reappeared with the books in wing, tied together with a belt. “One silver please.”
Carapace dug into his purse to pay, Ladybug wandering back outside as he paid and collected the books. “Say…You wouldn’t happen to know where a guy could get some Monster Extract, would you…?”
The Rito smiled.
-
A clean, clear note was heard as Chat lightly struck the wire with the hammer.
“It’s not a control panel, it’s an instrument!” Gasped Zelda, stars in her eyes, at the head of an entire coalition of researchers as Chat worked, using a screwdriver to tighten or loosen strings as he tapped at them, as the hammers weren’t attached to the keys.
He stopped, shaking his hand. “Ow…Sorry, Mom, my hand is cramping. I think this is right but…”
“Oh, no, dear, don’t worry about it a single bit!” Zelda assured him, rushing forward and gathering him into her arms. “We can piece it together from here just fine, you’ve given us an incalculable amount of information just with this!”
The researchers in charge of the instrument, who’d been standing dutifully by the edges, immediately went forward to whisk into action.
“These strings, they seem to be higher in note.”
“They’re individual not to be plucked, but to be stuck…”
“We must manufacture a leaver for the hammers to hit…”
“Oh this brilliant!”
“Thank you, dear.” Zelda said, hugging the blonde with one arm. “We’ll leave them to it. I think it’s about time for that physical, anyway.”
“Kay…” Chat said, perhaps a little dazed by the outpouring of affection and gratitude from his mother as she gently led him away from the bird-like curiosity of the researchers as they worked.
-
“Hungry? We could find somewhere to eat.” Carapace suggested as they walked down the street.
“Starving.” Ladybug said. “It’d be nice to not have something fishy or something so fancy.”
“Hah! Right?” Carapace snickered. “Having dinner with literal royalty was giving me anxiety.”
“How about the HFC?” Ladybug suggested, pointing to the stand that had a sign with a massive whole fried chicken sign and patrons eating outside.
“Sounds good.” Carapace hummed. “I could use a drumstick or two…There are Rito here, I wonder if that’s weird…”
The aforementioned HFC was just ahead, they swerved to get in line. It was basically just a food court stand, with outdoor seating that had a bunch of tarps to cover them from sun and rain.
“Nice and greasy,” Agreed Ladybug as they went in, behind a Gerudo and Hylian couple. She listened to their order, figuring she’d just get whatever they got since neither of them could read the menu. “Too bad no fries.”
“There’s no fries?!”
“Potatoes aren’t a thing here.”
“Hyrule is missing out badly,” Carapace snorted. They got their chicken and sides (which was coleslaw and rice) and sat to eat.
“Say, what was it like when you got here?” Ladybug asked as they ate.
“It’s a long story.”
“We got time.”
Carapace let out a soft breath, considering where the hell to begin. “I landed in a hot spring in the Hebra Mountain Range, a hidden spot. Goflam’s Secret Hot Spring, my master called it. She found me soaking in water to try to keep warm during a snowstorm, and I’m not sure how long I was there. Overnight, I think.”
“Oh, Carapace…I’m so sorry…”
Carapace shook his head slightly. “It is what it is. Master Selmie found me there, after the storm broke. She gave me her coat, and dragged me back to her cabin on a sled. I was sick for a long while, not sure exactly for how long. I was in and out of it for what felt like forever. When I was getting better, I realised I couldn’t understand Master Selmie at all, and it really freaked me out. I thought I might’ve ended up in the past or something, spent that first month out of sickness coming to terms with the fact I might just…live there now. I didn’t know I wasn’t alone out here until I got Chat’s letter.” Carapace said. “I guess Master Selmie was able to get word down to Rito Village that she’d found a Round-Eared Hylian in time for it to be communicated to Chat.”
“What was it like in the mountains?”
“When you’re up there, you can see all of Hyrule, and it’s just so massive!” Carapace, for a moment, sounded fond. But his tone turned back down as he continued. “I had no idea where to even start looking. If there was even a point to go look.”
Carapace took a moment to bite into his haunch of chicken, thinking back on his time in Hyrule.
“After I got better, Master Selmie put me to work. She taught me how to hunt, cook and surf. Not sure exactly when, but after a while we surfed downhill to Rito Village for supplies. We spent the night down there, where she gave me a Monster Extract cookie. I was really freaking out when I realised I could understand her.”
“Is that when you got Chat’s letter?”
“Yeah, we’d just left the village when they caught up to us. It’s a four day hike from the bottom to Master’s cabin when we couldn’t hire a Rito to fly us back up, and she only came down because I’d drained so much of her resources when she found me. I managed to get a letter out myself, still don’t know if he got it.”
“He got it,” Ladybug said. “Apparently, all our letters got back to him.”
“I sent one to Rena, when I found out she was in Gerudo Lands,” Carapace hummed. “Man, was it ever a trek to get here though.”
“How bad was it?”
“I went back down by myself to check if there was any more mail from you guys,” Carapace said. “And that’s when I found out about a rumour. Hyrule’s newest Prince, Chat Vi Hyrule, had been killed by a Lynel attack near the Akkala Citadel only days after being debuted. Alya and Nadja were working on the story together, since Hyrule’s most popular paper prints out of an old horse stable near Rito Village, to make the report official, and they were leaving immediately.”
Ladybug’s brows furrowed. By the sounds of it, Carapace had to have made a choice rather quickly…
He sighed, elbows on the table, a hand on the side of his neck and the other resting on his shoulder. “I hitched myself to their travelling party, and hired a Rito to deliver a message to Master Selmie that day. The hardest part was saying goodbye, and I couldn’t even do it in person.” Carapace admitted. “She saved my life, I’d be a skeleton in a hot tub if it wasn’t for her, but I couldn’t believe that Chat was dead until I saw his corpse or his grave with my own eyes.”
“I couldn’t imagine how terrifying that’d be, and to have to live with it for however long you were on the road…”
“About…a week and a half, plus change staying here in Tarry Town, I guess.” Carapace said. “Since Manon is young, Nadja wasn’t comfortable with forcing her to fly that distance and she couldn’t carry her, Alya and me, so we mostly travelled on foot. There was this massive dragon monster in the way, in the Tabantha Tundra we had to either cross or detour around, so we took the long way, through Hyrule Ridge.” Carapace tapped his finger onto the table as he recalled the journey he’d made. “We found the Drena Train Station, we boarded and passed through Eldon, around Death Mountain and into the Akkala port at the corner of Hyrule, and had to walk the rest of the way here to Tarry Town.”
“What’s the distance a trip like that takes?”
“It’s basically from the top right of the map to the top left,” Carapace said, reaching into his bag on the floor to dig out a map and show it to her, which was scribbled over with some writing, noting down location goals, a stick figure of a three headed dragon in a big blank area, and keeping track of where he’d been. “Not sure how long that is in kilometres, but it felt pretty long.”
“We’re lucky you came,” Ladybug said, seeing all the effort Carapace had put into his travel and learning. “Adrien would’ve died fighting that Lynel if you hadn’t stepped in.”
“It’s only so lucky my power started working at that moment, I wasn’t even sure if it would,” Carapace admitted. “It hadn’t been working at all when I was up in the mountains.”
“It’s been like that with all our powers,” Ladybug said. “They seemingly only work when whatever divine presence in this world wants or allows them to.”
Carapace nodded in understanding, and let out a soft sigh. “Suppose that means you aren’t breaking out the Butterfly Miraculous to send us home ASAP?”
“I wanted to wait to try, until Chat’s back at full strength.” Ladybug said, setting the map flat on the table. “But it’ll probably be sooner than that.”
“What about you? How've you been spending your time here?”
“I was in Zora’s Domain for most of this mess,” Ladybug said, pointing to the domain basin on the map. “One night out in the wilderness, then we got stuck again. I haven’t seen much of Hyrule at all.”
“For being an avatar of luck and creation, that’s seriously unlucky,” Carapace snorted, smiling as he took the map back. He flipped it over to the blank side, where Manon had drawn a picture of herself and her mother flying over a train car with Carapace and Alya within. She didn’t like having to ride the train, and had been so sure she could keep pace with it if only her mother had just let her out to fly…She never did, though.
He carefully folded it back up, and put it back into his bag. “I’d like to take you guys up to Hebra Peak, if that’s ever possible. It really is amazing out there. Could see the aurora on clear nights.”
“That sounds nice, but I don’t think I could make it.” Ladybug said, taking the last sip of her juice. “Hiking up all that way?”
“I can say I got the gams to make it now,” Carapace snickered. “Nora isn’t gonna be calling me flyweight anymore.”
“You do look a lot more buff,” Ladybug complimented.
Carapace flexed, smiling proudly. “Best part? All functional. This isn’t her gym rat muscle.”
Ladybug just snickered, standing with her clean plate. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s get going, Muscle Man.”
Carapace got up too, shouldering his bag to follow.
-
Adrien was just finishing up in the medical bay as they arrived, pulling his boots back on.
“Adrien,” Zelda greeted with a smile.
“Mom, Chat!” Adrien went to hug her. “I’m all good!”
The doctor, standing by, nodded in confirmation. “Perfect health, your Majesty. Even re-upped his vaccinations.”
“Oh, thank Hylia.” Zelda breathed, grateful. “Just one more, then.”
Chat was next, and the tests began. Treadmill endurance, reflexes, eye reactivity, sight tests, memory and cognition, touch and sensation, hearing tests, as well as getting his own vaccinations.
In all, it took almost an hour.
“Nearly perfect health.” The doctor announced, clipboard in hand.
“Nearly?” All three blondes asked, with varying levels of worry.
“You’re in need of glasses,” The doctor said. “It’s a light prescription, but you’re slightly farsighted. You probably won’t need them everyday until your vision worsens, but it’ll help you to have reading glasses on hand.”
“And you were reading by lantern,” snorted Adrien. “Probably made it worse.”
Zelda sighed softly, considering. “You’ll need a pair as soon as possible, plus some spares. Hylia knows you’ll break or lose the first few…”
“Do you have any preferences for style?” The doctor asked, making a note.
Chat thought for a moment. “Hm…I think silver frames would be nice, maybe kinda rectangular?”
The doctor noted it down, and motioned further into the office. “If you come this way, we can get your head measured and we’ll have the first set ready in an hour or so.”
-
Gliding down into Tarry Town had been easy, the trudge back up to the Citadel, however, was agony.
Particularly with all they’d bought while in town!
Not only did they have five of Chat’s requested book series, but there was also Carapace’s heavy travelling bag, some new armour Ladybug had liked and needed, some cloth and a sewing kit, a toy doctor set that Carapace thought Manon would like and impulse bought, new, heavier coats not only for Ladybug (Carapace was acclimated to a colder climate by then and found Akkala downright balmy, but Ladybug was not of the same opinion and doubted Bunnyx or Ryuko would agree with him either) some bathroom washing products that the Gerudo selling them said would not make her hair feel like straw like the stuff provided at the Citadel did, hair brushes, hair ties, in and amongst other things…
“...We really didn’t think this through,” Ladybug said, looking at all they’d gathered, then back up at the long walk to the Citadel.
“Not at all.” Agreed Carapace, hand on his shoulder as he began to stretch. “Guess you’re getting that Hebra Peak Hike experience whether you like it or not, Ladybro! At least it isn’t life or death in a snowstorm.”
“Small victories I suppose,” Ladybug said, shouldering her share of the load. “Hopefully we get back before nightfall.”
-
Zelda ensured her sons had a decent late lunch before she released them to do whatever wild hubbub two brothers got up to, going over Adrien’s paperwork as he ate.
“Really, Adrien? He’s a…’Dipshit’?” Zelda sighed.
Chat nearly snorted his mushroom soup in laughter, as Adrien pouted. “It’s true!”
She just shook her head, and scratched it out as she continued to proofread his work.
The door swung open, and in flew a little Rito girl with Aryll shortly behind her, giggling madly.
“Aryll,” Zelda greeted as the pair arrived. “And who is this?”
“This is my friend, Manon!” Aryll introduced. “She’s super fun!”
“Oh? Well then hello, Manon!” The queen greeted. “Are you two hungry?”
“Yes!” The girls chirped.
“Then come, sit, have a sandwich.” She invited them.
The girls’ got settled as Zelda served them some sandwiches and ladled some soup out for them, chattering about the latest drama their dolls had at the tea party.
And suddenly:
“Mommy, what’s a dipshit?” Aryll asked curiously.
Chat dropped his spoon into his bowl laughing as Adrien sunk lower into his chair, Zelda’s sharp gaze turning towards her son. “Adrien Von Hyrule!”
-
Ryuko entered the library, and found Chat at a table, just taking a shortcut back to her and the girls’ shared apartment to rest after spending most of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon training.
Inside, there were a few academics twittering around, shuffling this book or that off the shelves, Librarians taking cartloads back to resort the books back into their proper places, and in the middle was the blonde prince, leaned over a table with a few open books and maps spread out on the table, pencil fiddling between his fingers.
She slowed as she neared his back, and he didn’t even look up. Behind a pair of brand new glasses, green eyes scanned the pages in front of him, then pushing one aside to pull another closer, making a note or starting to copy a sentence, and cycling through again.
“Chat?”
“Hm?” Chat’s head lifted, blinking owlishly. “Oh, hello, Miss Ryuko!” He greeted, his hand automatically lifting to his face to wipe away what he quickly realised was the frame of his new glasses. His hand lowered, looking a bit embarrassed for having smudged the glass a bit, taking them off to clean. “Finished training with my Dad? Learn anything new?”
“Just resharpening after being stagnant for so long,” She reported. “May I sit?”
“Of course!” He nodded, gesturing. “Sit wherever you like.”
She did so, taking the chair next to him. “What are you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Just some catch up work,” Chat said. “The Resurrection Chamber’s amnesia seems to have entirely zapped everything I knew about everything.”
“Chat…”
“Let me guess,” Chat sighed. “I’m from another world, the information was never there to begin with?”
“If you’ve heard it before, how many more times must it be repeated before you believe it?” Ryuko asked.
“If it was you, wouldn’t you have a difficult time believing it?” Chat asked.
“Hm…I can’t argue, it would be a lot to accept.” She admitted. “But there’s so many who are telling you all the same thing.”
“I don’t take stock in how many people tell me the same thing,” Chat said. “A lot of people could just be wrong.”
“Isn’t even your mother telling you?”
Chat reached for a book, closing it. “Tell me, what colour is this book?” He asked, holding it up between them.
“It’s blue.”
“If my mother was right beside you, she’d say the same, right?”
“I’d assume so.”
“Same if Adrien, if Aryll, if my father, Ladybug, Carapace, Bunnyx, Nathie, Kagami, Nino, Udol, Armand, Chloe, Andre, Nathalie, and even Hawkmoth were right beside you?”
“Yes.”
“And if I said ‘I think this is red’, you’d say I was wrong.”
“You would be.”
Chat flipped the book to show her the other side of the cover, which was red. “And you’d have egg on your face.”
Ryuko reached, plucking the book out of his hand and flipped it back to the blue side. “That doesn’t change the fact that it’s also blue,” she argued.
“Hm…” Chat’s finger tapped on the book, a closed hand on his cheek. “Maybe like the book, we’re both right.”
“How could we both be right? You’re irrevocably of our world.” Ryuko asserted, absolutely certain.
“Maybe this body is of Paris, but my soul is of Hyrule.” He suggested. “...Maybe that’s just rationalisations at this point, though. Wishful thinking?”
Ryuko let out a soft sigh. “I haven’t known you for very long,” she admitted. “And I can’t tell when you’re lying. Do you genuinely believe what you’re saying or are you just messing with us all? Do you really believe that you’re not an otherworld traveller?”
Chat considered the question, his pencil still fiddling as he thought. “I’m not sure. I’m still looking for answers, too.” His head tilted side to side, as if literally knocking around ideas like billiard balls inside his head. “Maybe the person I was, the one that first arrived here in Hyrule and the one you knew in Paris, the person that was found on Puffer Beach, is just…dead, and I’m all that’s left. I don’t…feel any connection with that world. You say you knew me but…I don’t think you did. I don’t think any of you did.”
“That’s…probably true,” Ryuko admitted again. “You…you were quite the performer. If you hadn’t changed in front of me, I would have never guessed that…” Ryuko trailed off, thinking. “...Do you want to remember…? Remember your time in Paris, growing up, remember us?”
Chat set down the pencil, arms crossing, leaning back in the chair slightly, balancing on its back legs. “...Would you be mad if I said I didn’t?”
“I’d understand why.”
“...I want to,” He said, sounding firm, putting all four legs of his chair back onto the floor. “But I’m not sure if I should. It’s like looking for a wasp nest, you know you have to find it but you’re still scared of getting stung.”
“You have to,” Ryuko advised. “Because if you don’t, those wasps will come back in force, you know.”
“I know.” Chat sighed softly. “I know…”
-
Carapace arrived with Ladybug on his back, his travel pack on his front and everything else strapped to wherever it would fit, walking across the Citadel bridge just as the sun was setting. Ladybug had accidentally rolled her ankle and it was throbbing, which led to having the shelled hero hauling her up as well as all their purchases.
“You really weren’t kidding about those gams, Carapace.” Ladybug said, her chin just above Carapace’s sweaty head. “Or are you just showing off?”
“Eh, two things can be true at once,” Carapace chuckled. “And at least this isn’t in fresh powder uphill.”
Link and Bunnyx were sitting by the gate when she noticed them coming down the bridge, dashing to meet them. “Hey! Welc-whoa! Carapace, you’ve been lifting!”
“That I have,” Carapace grunted, kneeling to let Ladybug off so Bunnyx could help the injured heroine stand, lightening his load a bit.
Link was a bit slower, walking rather than following Bunnyx’s running pace. “Here, son. Let me help with that,” Link said, grabbing some of Carapace’s load.
“I’m fine, sir. Ladybug needs a lift to medical more than I need help with the load,” Carapace assured him, standing upright.
Link smiled slightly, impressed. “I’m not old yet, kid.”
He forcibly scooped up some of the larger bags Carapace had been holding, and knelt to pick up Ladybug from Bunnyx’s side, putting her onto his shoulder and walking back towards the gate.
Ladybug resisted the squeak at the back of her throat as she was so easily lifted, sat quite nicely on the Prince Consort’s shoulder. She put her hands in her face, embarrassed as she was hauled in alongside the shopping.
Link gently set her back down, and asked someone to take her to medical, Bunnyx right behind as Carapace was about to continue on, but stopped by Link and forced to unload so nearby attendants could help.
“Go rest,” Link advised once Carapace had been properly unburdened. “I don’t know where you came from, but you haven’t at all learned to pace yourself, have you?”
“Nah, Mr.Link sir,” Carapace said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was up in Hebra.”
“Hebra? Wouldn’t have happened to meet Selmie up there, did you?”
“She saved my life, sir. Taught me all I know.”
“No shit? Small world. I haven’t seen her off that mountain in…ever, I think. How’s she doing?”
“Last I saw, as well as she could be. I…I miss her a lot. She was good to me.”
“Hm…Tomorrow, let’s go for a ride. It’s no Hebra Peak but there’s a hill not far from here. I don’t doubt my kids want to stretch their legs too.”
“Sounds like fun, Mr.Link. I’m down to clown!” Carapace grinned.
“Good,” Link pat Carapace’s sweaty head, and urged back into the Citadel. “Dinners in an hour, could you find Chat and let him know?”
-
Carapace did end up taking the wooden crate of books himself in, shouldering them as he went searching for his friend.
Asking a few of the random people around, they all said he’d gone into the garden.
Carapace didn’t quite know his way around, so it took a bit to find where the garden was.
Of course, it was one of the rooms highest within the Citadel, so it’s glass windows weren’t able to be targeted by enemies from below. It was all light coloured stone, with high vaulted ceilings and flowing water. There was an indoor river and various ponds that had fish and frogs and other such wildlife within, tall trees brushing up against garden lights in the ceiling, the entire area was lush and green and so warm, like a miniature garden of eden.
There, he saw a table all set out with tea and sweets on it, but also found clothes folded up on the chair…
That got Carapace curious, and before he went and started shouting for Chat, he put the crate of books down onto the chair, on top of the clothes in question before he started looking around.
Beyond the soft gurgle of the running stream and soft birdsong in the trees, gentle buzzing of insects and other such critters in the foliage, he could hear…soft laughter, and splashing water.
Slowly, he inched up towards where he heard the sound. Had Chat gone and found someone to occupy his time with no books to read?
He had.
Carapace slapped a hand over his head, stifling a gasp and snicker when he found his blonde friend sitting at the edge of a deeper pool, only in his underwear with a very large, dark blue Zora, half submerged, elbows on the stone floor with Chat between his arms, Chat’s arms around his neck and shoulders as the Zora was either telling him a hilarious joke right into his ear, or he was kissing at the prince’s bare neck while Chat giggled and squirmed.
He retreated before either one noticed him, back to the table, taking a few seconds to regain composure.
He picked up the crate of books again, and set it down again, this time a bit more heavily so there was an audible noise. “Chaaat?!” He shouted into the garden. “Are ya here, buddy?!”
In the silence after his call, there was a quick splash. It probably wouldn’t have been immediately noticeable to anyone who hadn’t been listening for it. “Uhm…Hi, Carapace! I was just having a dip over here!” Chat called back.
Carapace retraced his steps, to where Chat was now sitting all alone by an artificial riverside, no Zora in sight. He looked a bit flushed, and there was a noticeable discolouration across his shoulder, very much not noticeable to Chat himself.
“Your Dad said that dinner’s in a few,” Carapace said, still staying a safe distance in case Luka was hiding just under the water. “And your books are by your clothes.”
“Oh? Thank you, Carapace,” Chat said, pulling himself out from the water.
The hero and prince began the short walk through the garden, back to the table. “Say, is this place like, another research area or something?” Carapace asked curiously as he lifted the crate of books.
“Erm…It’s more like a pleasure garden,” Chat explained, grabbing his clothes from the chair to redress. “Y’know, to relax and stuff. Get fresh fish immediately, sit in the grass without monsters being a worry, that kind of thing.”
Carapace nodded. “Ah, pleasure garden.”
Chat slid his shirt on, and Carapace’s head tilted. “You’ll need a better shirt.”
Chat blinked, and looked down at his shirt. “Why…?”
“You got…a shark bite, bro.” Carapace informed him lightly, gesturing on himself where Chat’s bite was. It started at the round of his shoulder, and the other round of it was still quite visible under his loose black tunic. Not bloody, but there was a clear reddened indentation in his skin.
Chat’s face immediately flushed red, a hand going to cover his neck. “Shit-!”
Carapace burst into snickers as the Prince immediately ran, picking up the books and downright sprinting out of the garden while covering his bite.
“Ey!” He shouted into the garden, hoping the Zora in question was still there. “You better not be a dick to Chat! He deserves better than to be a notch in your harness!”
Carapace turned and left, eager to get a shower in and head down for dinner after his long hike.