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“Your husband is crying.” It’s one of Amali’s kids.
“What.” Revali stops stringing his bow. He heard her, but he wants to make sure.
“Your husband is crying,” she says again, pointing to a direction.
“Why? What is he doing? Where is he?” Revali gets up, ready to go to the direction the fledgling pointed to.
“He’s cutting down trees for wood, I think,” she replies.
“Oh my god, I hope he didn’t hurt himself,” he mutters, shooting quickly into the sky.
It doesn’t take long for Revali to locate L. There is a pile of wood in front of L.
“L, L, what’s going on are you hurt?” Revali lands where L is.
“Uh,” L sniffles. “Yeah. Yeah. Everything’s fine. I’m not hurt.” He turns to Revali. His nose and cheeks are red. His eyes are watery. He sniffs again. “I’m fine.”
“Well, you don’t look fine.” Well, those words must’ve pushed it to the edge, because L starts crying again. “Wait, don’t cry.” Revali can’t deal with crying. Especially his husband’s cries. There’s a ping that hurts his chest a little. He’s got to fix whatever is troubling L or else he will die. Metaphorically.
“I’m not crying. I’m fine.” L stares back at the pile of wood. He starts picking it up sluggishly. He’s only sluggish if a – he’s tired, or b – his thoughts are weighing him down. Both of those involve crying, and Revali is not in the mood to deal with it. He sighs quietly.
“Come here,” Revali says, taking the wood from L’s hands. He wraps his wings around the Hylian. L doesn’t move to hug him back. Which is weird, Revali thinks, because L likes hugs. Something must be very wrong.
But to prolong the crying and the calming down, Revali doesn’t ask just yet.
Or he doesn’t have to ask, because he hears L mutter something.
“What?” Revali wants clarification.
“I’m too slow.”
“What?” Now he needs an explanation.
“I’m too slow. I want to help Tarrey Town, but I can’t get these pieces of woods fast enough,” L says, still talking softly.
Revali doesn’t even know where to start. If he says the wrong thing, L will start crying again, and never talk to him again. But he has to think of something fast, or else that will be a whole other thing. The problem is, Revali doesn’t even know anything about this Tarrey Town or building with wood thing.
“They are probably already done with building and are waiting for wood again. It would be better if they had someone else to do it. Or even if they did it themselves!”
“Why… why would they want to do it themselves if they have help already?” Revali asks, not knowing where L’s thinking led to.
“Because they wouldn’t have the expectation to get disappointed!” Revali barely follows. But he doesn’t say anything because again, one wrong word and it’s back at the beginning.
“You’re better than no help at all, though. They don’t need to do all the work,” Revali tries. This better be good.
L sighs. He looks down on the ground and sniffs again. “Yeah, I guess.” He doesn’t believe Revali.
Revali looks at the ground at the big pile of wood. “Are you getting paid for this?”
“No.”
What are the builders’ expectation then? “What does it matter if you’re helping slowly, then?” Revali doesn’t even know what the problem is.
“Because…!” L huffs. He sighs and goes back to looking at the ground. “I don’t know.”
Not wanting to make things worse, possibly, Revali just goes back to hugging L.
“I just want to help. And I don’t know why I’m getting insecure about this. I know what I’m doing is to help them, or else they wouldn’t have any help at all!” L starts yelling. “I don’t know why I’m so insecure! I don’t want it! I don’t want it anymore!!” Tears fall down L’s cheek like a waterfall. “I know I’m doing a good job! I know that! Look at all the wood I cut!” L shows the wood. “That’s a lot! It took me a while, but it’s a lot and it’ll help them build! But…!” L shuts his eyes and more tears fall. Revali just stands there, wings to the side, just listening to L rant.
Softly he continues. “I don’t want my insecurities anymore. But I can’t stop thinking.” He goes back into Revali’s chest, this time putting his arms around and finally giving the Rito a hug.
Revali is not equipped with the ability to put L’s mind to rest about this wood. So he gets an idea.
“Come on, L. We’re going to bring the wood to Tarrey Town.”
“Um okay,” L says. He lets go and drops his arms to his sides. He stares at the wood for a second before picking one up. He starts picking up the pace and puts the wood away in his pocket. Revali also picks up wood and hands it off to L to put in his pocket. It doesn’t even take more than two minutes, so Revali thinks that’s a success. It was a lot of wood. But Revali looks at his husband and he started crying again. Revali mimes a sigh. He’s got to make L feel better again, and as soon as possible.
“Well, let’s go!” Revali lets L climb his back and they whoosh away.
They arrive at Tarrey Town. Hudson greets them on their landing.
“Oh great! You got me some wood!” Hudson claps his hands together and rubs them. “Let me work my magic, son, and I’ll see you in the morning!”
Revali and L start to walk away. Then they hear Hudson again.
“Oh and by the way.” They turn towards the speaker. “Thanks, L! You’re the best! Always there when I need you! I wouldn’t want help from anyone else.”
L covers his mouth with a hand, and blinks several times. He lets his tears fall down, again. “O-of course. Thank you! I mean, you’re welcome!”
Hudson nods and walks the other way. L and Revali continue to walk the way they were going. L lets out a sob. Revali puts a wing around his shoulder. “Does that help your anxieties?”
L titters. “Yeah, actually.” L leans on Revali. “Thank you.”
“Hm!” Revali stands up straighter. “Of course!”
“I love you,” L says. They continue to walk.
“Hm. I love you,” Revali says back. L chortles.
“I love you.” More softly this time.
And with the same tone, Revali says back, “I love you, too,” earning a smile from L.