Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Come on now? You aren't holding back on your old man are you?" Blue said as moved out of the way from one of Jade's swigs. 

Jade responded with only a small grunt and another swing that her father easily dodged.

They continued like this for a while longer, Jade getting more and more frustrated as her attacks were either dodged or blocked with little effort. As the spar continued on, Jade's swings only got faster and harder as she started putting more of her weight behind them. It wasn’t long before she lost her footing on one of them, and found herself falling over as she threw herself into her next attack.

Dropping the practice sword he was using, Blue managed to catch her before she hit the ground. 

“Hey, are you okay?” He helped Jade get back onto her feet, a worried look in his eyes to match with her frustrated one. 

“I’m fine .” Jade crossed her arms. 

“What's wrong?”

“ Nothing! ”

“You wouldn’t be saying it like that if it was just nothing Jade.”

She grumbled before taking a deep breath. "Can we take a break?"

"Yea, we can do that."

Jade nodded before leaving the training grounds, heading towards the castle garden. 

“She gets it from you, you know?” Queen Zelda said as she set her project down and made her way over to Blue from where she had been watching the two.

“Don’t remind me. I’m just glad she’s better at noticing it herself. I would have blown up by now.”

“She just needs someone to help her work through it.”

“You know how hard it was for me to do that. You were there.”

“Exactly why you’re the one that needs to help her do the same.”

“I don’t even know what I would say to her. I can’t just use what Dad would always tell me, Goddesses know those lectures never helped.”

“What’s something that you wish he did say then? Something that you would have wanted to hear back then that would have helped you.”

Blue took a deep breath before letting out a small chuckle. “Why do you have to be right all the time?”

“Go talk to her.” Zelda said, lightly shoving Blue in the same direction that Jade had gone off in. 

It didn’t take long before Blue found her sitting down next to a small stream.

"It feels good when you fight angry, doesn't it?” Blue asked as he sat down next to Jade. “Makes you feel like you could take on everything and not get a scratch on you?”

Jade only nodded, not looking away from the point on the ground she was staring down. 

Blue sighed, “It took me a while to learn this myself, but that feeling isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Feeling like you’re invincible because of your anger, it can and will cause you to slip up. You end up leaving yourself openings that even a hikkun can notice and take advantage of.” 

He put his hand on Jade’s shoulder causing her to look up at him. 

“I don’t want you to end up getting hurt because you were blinded by anger in a fight Jade. Try and learn to let that anger go. Trust me, it will help you in the long run.”

“I think I’m ready to try again.” Jade said after another deep breath. 

“You sure?”

“I am.” She picked herself up off of the ground, her father getting up after her. 

Together, the two of them made their way back to the training ground and picked back up the wooden swords they had been using. 

Just like before, Jade attacked first. She started by attempting to rush him, seeing if she might be able to knock him off balance and make an opening for herself. Like before, Blue was easily able to move out of the way from most of  her swings, and blocked the others. Jade noticed that he never blocked any of the ones that were aimed lower though, them being ones that he always dodged instead. 

With a small smirk, Jade shifted her attention to attack his legs, and it worked. It wasn’t long before Blue was unable to move out of the way in time, and found himself on his back after a well timed swing to the back of his knees.

With a bit of a wheeze of a laugh, Blue sat up a bit and saw the bright smile that had formed on Jade’s face. 

“Good job,” he said as he pulled himself the rest of the way up, “you saw an opening I didn’t even realize.”

He ruffled her hair a bit. “I’m finally going to have to get used to fighting someone shorter than me.”

From nearby, a stifled set of laughter erupted and caused Blue’s face to turn bright red. 

Turning, he saw Zelda, still watching from where she had been before, hiding her mouth behind one of her gloved hands. 

“I’ll leave the two of you to your training for now,” she said after a moment, “I have other duties to take care of and should check on what the others are doing, I have a suspicion that some of them may be planning something.”

“Bye Mom!” Jade called out as Queen Zelda made her way back into the castle proper. 

Eventually, Blue was able to get his face back to it’s normal color. 

“Are you ready to go again?”

Jade nodded, sword in hand.

Chapter Text

“Alright,” Green said as he stood back up, dusting off his hands as he did so, “All that’s left is to run the string to the door, and then the next person who opens it will get the paint dumped on them. We should wait until we know Grandpa Vin is going to be the next one that goes through it though, that way we don’t get anyone else with it.” 

“Are you sure he won’t be mad at us about this?” Midori asked her father. 

“Nah, trust me, he’s had something like this coming for a while.” 

Midori laughed a small bit at that. 

“So,” Queen Zelda said as she walked through the hall and approached them, “I’m going to take a guess and say that the two of you are planning something?”

The two in question both froze and turned around to face her, matching looks of guilt on their faces. 

Zelda let out a small laugh as she smiled, “May I ask whom the target is this time? That way I know if you two need a proper cover.”

“It’s for Grandpa Vin!” Midori answered. 

At those words, Zelda raised one of her eyebrows at Green. 

“What? It wasn’t my idea this time!”

The Queen shook her head with a small laugh and an amused smile. 

“I shall leave the both of you to it then.” she said before landing a small kiss on Green’s cheek, and heading down the hall again. 

After she left, Green looked over at Midori and noticed her nervously messing with the sleeves of her dress. 

“Hey,” Green put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder, “He won’t be mad about this, I promise.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’ve pulled things like this on him plenty of times when I was younger. The worst he’s ever done to me afterwards was make sure I got some of the paint on me too.” Green chuckled at the memory. “At least this time it's a kind that easily washes out.”

“That’s not all that you’re worried about though, is it?” Green asked.

Midori shook her head. 

“What is it then?”

“What if it goes wrong and someone gets hurt? Or if someone else gets caught in it instead and they get mad? Or-”

“Calm down,” Green said, kneeling down to be at eye level with Midori and putting his other hand on her shoulder, “It will be alright, I promise. The way we set it up, no one should get hurt from it. As for someone else getting caught? That’s why we’re waiting until Grandpa Vin is going to come through the door instead of right now to set the last part. That way none of the palace staff, Mom, or your sisters will get caught in it.”

“What about your other parts?”

“Ehh, I’d honestly be fine with it if one of them got caught instead. If they don’t see the set up, that's on them”

That finally caused Midori to break out into giggles.

Now smiling, Green stood back up and took a look out the nearby window out into the courtyard, spotting his own father coming up the path, but not yet fair enough up it to see him.

“Speaking of,” he said as he moved out of view of the window, ‘Grandpa Vin is starting to come now. Do you want to do the honor?” 

Midori nodded before taking the hanging string and hooking it up to the door. Then, she moved to peek out the window herself, just high enough to see, but not high enough to be noticeable. 

“Wait! Someone else is coming too!” She called out to her father.

Chapter Text

“When the Minish first appeared,” Red said, sitting down across from his eldest daughter, Zelda Rose, who was listening intently, “Hyrule was in a time of great need. Monsters roamed the land and it was on the verge of being swallowed by darkness. It’s said that they came from the sky, bringing with them two gifts to help.”

“But I thought the Minish were around before Hyrule was?” Zelda Rose asked.

“Just because they were around longer, doesn’t mean that they still didn’t come from the sky.” Red said with a small chuckle. “Our ancestors lived in the sky once too after all, and the Wind Tribe still lives there!” 

Zelda Rose gave her father a bit of a skeptical look, but didn’t say anything. 

“The gifts the Minish brought were the Picori Blade, a sword that the Hero of Men used to slay many of the monsters, and seal the ones that remained inside a bound chest.”

“What about the second gift?”

“The second gift was the Light Force, a powerful magic with a golden light that helped to restore the land. With peace returned to the land, the Minish separated. Some staying in Hyrule, and some going back to their own realm as the door to it was closing, and would not open again for 100 years.”

“But you said they were from the sky! Not their own realm!”

“The Minish Realm could be in the sky!”

After a moment, the two of them both erupted into giggles at Red’s statement. 

Once she had contained her laughter, Zelda Rose asked another question. 

“Where did the gifts go afterwards?”

“Well, the Picori Blade remained in the bound chest for a long time, until a certain Wind Mage who was seeking the Light Force broke it, opening the chest as he thought the Light Force was inside of it. It wasn’t but the Picori Blade had to be repaired so that way the monsters that were released could be stopped. I was still a boy then, and so I was asked to be the one to find the Minish inorder to ask them for help in repairing the blade. With their help, I was able to turn the broken blade into the Four Sword.”

“What about the Light Force? Where was it?” 

“Well you see, when the Minish gave us the Light Force, it chose to reside inside the Princess of Hyrule at the time, and has been passed down ever since. Back when the Wind mage had been looking for it, it was in your mother. And now, it’s in you.”

Red punctuated the last word by leaning forwards and booping Zelda Rose’s nose. 

“What is it that you two are doing here?” Queen Zelda asked as she came in through the door. 

“Mom!” Zelda Rose got up from where she was sitting and ran over to her mother, “Did the Minish come from their own realm or from the sky! Dad’s saying it’s both but it can’t be both!”

“Well,” The Queen thought for a moment, “I know the door to the Minish Realm is in the courtyard, but I’ve never been in there myself. For all I know it could be in the sky in their Realm.”

“You can always ask them yourself too,” Red added, “The Minish have long memories and long lives. One of the elders might have been around back then.”

Before Zelda Rose was able to say anything back, a small crash, along with a shout of surprise was heard from elsewhere in the castle. A few moments later, it was followed by someone shouting “GREEN!”

“Uh oh,” Red said, a look of worry on his face as he looked in the direction it had come from. 

“Should we go see what that was?” Zelda Rose asked. 

“That would be a good idea,” The Queen said, already making her way in that direction, “I have a feeling as though we may need to help break something up soon.”

Chapter Text

"You don't want to keep too tight of a grip on the bowstring, but don't hold it too loose either," Vio explained, "If you hold it to tight it can snap on you but if it's too loose you won't be able to pull it back far enough to make the shot."

Violet listened intently as her father's part instructed her. 

They each held their own bow, Violet’s much smaller than Vio’s own, as he pointed out the different parts of it and demonstrated what he meant as he explained.

“You’ll only want three fingers on the string, either with three under the arrow, or with two under and one above it. I use split finger myself, but you should practice with both and find the one that you are more comfortable using.”

“When you pull back, keep your elbow up high,” Vio pulled his right arm back as he spoke in the same way he would if he was drawing the string. “Create some tension in your back as you do so and that will help keep the shot aligned properly.”

Violet nodded before doing the same, her father helping to adjust her positioning a bit before she relaxed and tried again. After a few times, she attempted again, this time holding the bow itself, and using three fingers to pull the string back. 

“When you go to shoot, don’t focus on aiming.” Vio said as grabbed an arrow out of his nearby quiver. “Instead focus on pulling back and releasing. If you don’t keep your focus there, your body will drift back into a more comfortable position and it will end up throwing off your aim. Same with the release. You want the string to slide away from your grip. Let your attention slip, and you may end up trying to catch the string as it goes and it too will mess up the shot. Leave the aiming to the back of your mind.”

Vio took a deep breath as he pulled back, and released it when he let the arrow fly. It hit its mark dead center, and he turned back to Violet. 

“Your turn.”

Violet nodded before turning to face the target. Taking a deep breath, she mirrored the same motions that her father had made. After a few moments, she let it fly. 

Her arrow landed on the target, though quite a bit to the right of where Vio’s had, nearly on the edge of the block. A small wave of disappointment hit Violet before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Good job,” Vio said, his mouth turned upwards in a proud smile. “That’s a good hit for your first time. I think I had missed the target a few times when I was first learning how to shoot.”

“Really?” Violet had a hard time believing that with how good of an archer her father was. 

“Really. It took me a while to get the hang of it. You just have to keep practicing and I know you’ll get better at it than me.” 

A smile returned to Violet’s face, and Vio’s own softened a bit at it.

“Why don’t we head back for now, it’s going to be time for lunch soon and we’ll have to clean up first.”

As the two headed back down the path, it wasn’t long until they spotted the aging Captain of the Knights who was heading the same way. 

“Grandpa Vin!” Violet called, running ahead a bit to catch up to him. 

Upon hearing one of his granddaughter’s voice’s, Vin stopped and turned back around to see both her and Vio heading down the same path.

“So, where are you two heading from?” Vin asked once Vio had gotten closer.

Once he had caught up to the other two, all three of them started back down the path again. 

“The Archery range,” Vio answered. 

“I want to learn how to be a good archer like dad is!” Violet added. 

“I trust it helps to have actual instruction instead of stubbornly trying to learn it on your own,” Vin said with a small laugh, “I remember your father at your age refusing to accept help with learning how to use his bow. Not even after breaking one of the washer woman’s tubs with a stray arrow.” 

“That was one time.” Vio said defensively, “I gave her the rupees to replace it after apologizing.”

“You still could have asked for help learning after that.”

“Who would I have asked? You? We both know that you’re only barely better at archery than you are at smithing.” Vio said as he walked forwards to open the door for the three of them, “Need I mention the time whe-”

Vio was cut off as a bucket, which had been placed above the door, tipped over and poured its contents onto him, coating him in a bright green color.

After a few brief moments, Vio slowly turned his head to look inside, where he saw his green counterpart frozen with a guilty look on his face before quickly bolting down the hall. 

“GREEN!” Vio shouted, barely giving the other color enough of a heads start before he started after him, leaving Violet, Vin, and Midori all behind in his wake.

Chapter Text

“Since you’re just starting out with making these, we should start with just making them from a regular one first.” Shadow said as he pulled two bombs out of the bag he ‘borrowed’ from his light counterpart and handed one of them to Sasha. 

The bombs Shadow pulled out weren't very big, only just larger than the palm of his hand. Sasha had to hold her’s in both hands though. 

“Guessing you don’t want me to light this just yet Papa?” Sasha asked with a small smirk. 

“At least not until I show you how to give it more of a punch first.” Shadow responded with a matching smirk of his own.

Sasha gave a toothy grin at that, her golden eyes shining with mischief. 

Shadow pushed himself up from the ground where he had been sitting, and then used his thumb and forefinger to grip the fuse. Taking a deep breath, he focused on the string, and small wisps of smoke-like shadow emerged from around his hand. The whisps circled around the fuse for a moment, before seeming to get sucked into the cap of the bomb. Soon, the bomb itself began to expand, growing bigger and bigger until it was at least the same size of his torso and still growing. Grinning, Shadow removed his hand from the fuse, lightning it with the same motion. After bouncing it in his hand once, he threw it as far as he could. After its explosion, both Shadow and Sasha could feel the shockwave that was left in its wake.

“Cool!” Sasha grinned, her hair only barely managing to stay halfway neat thanks to the red bow holding it back. 

“Very,” Shadow grinned back. “Think you want to give it a try?”

Sasha was all but bouncing up and down with excitement as she nodded her head. 

Shadow laughed. “Alright, but before you accidentally let it go off on yourself, let me tell you a few things.” 

“It won’t go off on me!” Sasha protested.

“Trust me, it always will the first time.” Shadow ruffled her hair a little bit. “That’s not a bad thing though, it just means you’re learning how to get the hang of it. It’s happened to me more times than I can count. The bomb’s sort of like a dough when it’s expanding. If you don’t spread the magic out evenly, the outside of it can get thin, and make a hole. If that happens, it will blow up prematurely.”

Sasha nodded before adjusting how she was holding her bomb so that way she would be able to grip it like her father did.

“Oh, and make sure that you don’t take your fingers off the fuse until you’re ready for it to light. These things are really picky about that even without magical influence.” 

Taking a deep breath, Sasha focused her shadow magic so that way it would go into a bomb. Sure enough, it started to grow, abet much slower than the one her father made. Surprisingly to her, its weight stayed the same despite its change in size. Before it got even a quarter of the size of the one Shadow made, Sasha’s expanding bomb exploded on her, sending her hair flying behind her and a black blast mark to appear on her face. 

“Oh,” she said after blinking a few times, before bursting out laughing. 

Shadow chuckled as well before whipping away some of the soot from his own face. “We have a whole bag of bombs. Do you want to give it another go?”

“ Yes! ”

Cackling, Shadow handed Sasha another bomb. 

This time, she managed to get it a decent size before suddenly letting go of the fuse with a yelp. 

“Quick, throw it!” 

Sasha did so, the bomb landing far enough away that when it went off that when it went off, she and her father only felt the slight shockwave. 

“Not bad,” grinned Shadow after a moment, “not bad at all.”

Chapter Text

Queen Zelda Dorothea Hyrule had long gotten used to the kind of chaos that her family would cause. She would even join in on it when she was able to between her Royal Duties. So to say that she wasn’t surprised when she walked out of the Library with Red and Zelda Rose, only to see Green running down the halls of the castle with a panicked look on his face after would be an understatement. 

“Hide me!” Green said as he took a sharp turn to hide behind his wife, one of his other parts, and eldest daughter. 

“Let me guess,” Red said while both Zeldas laughed, “The prank backfired?”

“Both yes and no.” Green responded while trying to make himself as small as possible behind them. 

Zelda Rose looked up at her father’s green part and opened her mouth to ask how a prank could both backfire and not backfire at the same time, when Vio, covered in neon-green paint came down the hall with a look of murder on his face. Her question answered for her, she quietly slipped away to join Midori and Violet, who had followed behind Green and Vio. 

“Should we go get Jade and the rest of Dad?” Midori asked, looking at the scene going on in front of them. 

“Probably…” Violet responded. “Papa and Sasha too if we see them.”

The three girls nodded before heading off in the other direction.

Queen Zelda meanwhile, after waving her daughters off,  simply hid her chuckle behind a sigh and shook her head. 

“I thought you were waiting to set the string?” she asked.

“We we re !” Green’s voice cracked. “We didn’t set it until we saw Dad!”

“Then how come I’m the one covered in paint!” Vio yelled at Green, trying to go around Red and Queen Zelda.

Green kept dodging out of the way of his other part however. “Not my fault I'm the one that opened the door! I knew this was already going to happen today!”

After a few more minutes of both Red and Queen Zelda trying to dissuade Vio from prematurely ending his other part, the girls returned, bringing Blue, Jade, Shadow, and Sasha with them. The latter two still partly covered in soot from their experiments with magically empowered explosives. 

After taking a look at the scene before him, Blue sighed before locking eyes with Green.

“Is it at least the washable kind?” he asked, wondering which side of this conflict he was going to be on. 

“YeS!”

Grimacing slightly, Blue walked over and grabbed Vio from behind, locking his arms in place so that way he was no longer a danger to Green’s well-being. Green in turn bent over panting, one of his exhales sounding very slightly like a word that should not be uttered in front of small ears. Luckily, by the sound of the laughter coming from the ones with small ears in the hall, it seems they did not hear it. 

After he was done cackling himself, Shadow walked over to where the rest of the ‘adults’ were. 

“Think you maybe want to merge to sort this all out with yourself, Oilslick?” he asked with a smirk. 

“That may be the best course of action.” Queen Zelda agreed, the girls nodding between their laughter. 

“Yea,” Green said after catching his breath, “I should do that.”

“I might not be fully calm enough for that though,” Red pointed out with a nod toward Vio, who was still glaring at Green. 

Vio took a deep breath to try and calm himself a little. “I think I’ll be able to manage.” 

“I better be able to,” Blue said, releasing Vio from his grip. 

Green reached for the Four Sword on his back, together, each of the Colors took in a deep breath…

…Link exhaled, now whole, and still completely covered in bright green paint. 

“I should go get cleaned up.” Link said with a small laugh after taking a small moment to sort together his split memories of the day thus far. 

“Yes, yes you should.” Queen Zelda, her own laughter now coming though. She turned to face all five of the girls and Shadow. “And so should the rest of you.”

Shadow and Link both shared a glace, each of them smirking with the same thought. 

“Oh don’t you boys dare ,” Queen Zelda started, before finding herself already wrapped into a hug from Link, the green pain now getting onto her as well. 

The quintuplet girls erupted into even more laughter as they watched their mother try and escape. Once she finally did, she whacked Link on the arm, only to get kissed on the cheek by Shadow and his soot-covered face. 

“Both of you are horrible,” she said, smiling despite her words. “Now let's all get cleaned up then so we can at least get lunch at some point today.”