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"Ha. That was easy." Vio dropped from the tree and slung his bow on his back. The last hinox crashed to the ground.
"Says the one who just climbed a tree," Blue grumbled. His armor had taken a few hits, but he seemed to be all right, inspecting his hammer, so Vio started scavenging for arrows.
"It's hard to aim when you're jumping around in the melee," he complained, crouching down to grab a few arrows from the hinox corpse. "If you'd do what Green does, herd them and harry them, that could've been even easier."
"Oh, so I need to… be more like Green…?" Blue clearly meant the words to be mocking, but he slurred them.
Vio turned with alarm to see Blue sway on his feet, the handle of his hammer slipping from his fingers. He jumped up and managed to make it to Blue just as he fell. He was heavy, from the armor and the muscle mass. Vio had meant to catch him, but all he ended up doing was softening the fall.
"Blue—" Vio grunted, edges of armor digging into his skin. "You can't faint on me!"
Blue, predictably, did not respond.
As gently as he could, Vio let Blue roll off of him and onto his side so he wouldn't choke if he had to vomit. Ew. With that in mind, Vio got behind Blue to check him over. Skin, pale. Pulse, a bit quick but within safe parameters. Eyes—he lifted one of Blue's eyelids to check—dilating normally.
Vio fumbled with the straps holding Blue's armor on. If there was a significant wound or something wrong, he'd need to be able to get to it. Or pick him up, and that was not happening with the armor.
"Come on, Blue, wake up. What is it? Concussion? Blood loss?" Vio was not very familiar with Blue's armor. It took precious seconds to locate the right buckles, much less undo them. He definitely didn't do it correctly, but eventually he had the armor in a relatively neat pile on the forest floor.
Blue was not bleeding anywhere that Vio had seen. Nothing seemed broken, though he definitely few brushes would soon bloom from blunt force that his armor had mostly absorbed. He seemed okay, he'd just… fainted.
"This isn't the sort of puzzle I enjoy solving," Vio scolded. He brushed some of Blue's hair out of his face. His fingers came back red and stinging. What?
A small scrape hid under Blue's bangs, above his eyebrow and oozing oddly thick blood. If it had stung Vio's fingers…
"Poison. My favorite. Where did it come from?" Vio glanced around the clearing, but the monsters had either turned to dust already or were in the process of doing so. Only some bits of equipment lasted, ones that didn't seem very conducive to poison delivery.
It mattered where it had come from, of course, but that question was not quite as urgent as Blue's immediate condition. With poison in the equation, Vio was at a loss. He didn't know what it was meant to do, how fast it would spread, or how bad it would get. He couldn't waste any time.
Vio rummaged around in his bag and pulled out the little box of herbs. Forestlace, forestlace… there it was. He opened the tiny leather pouch. The distinct smell of the herb spread out into the clearing, not unpleasant but definitely unusual. He pulled out a few dried buds, crushed them into a piece of gauze, and pressed that up against Blue's cut. Blue got a few more buds in his mouth.
Forestlace was a competent cure-all when it came to chemicals. It would dehydrate Blue a lot, but dehydrated was better than dead. Vio hoped it would do good enough work to keep him alive, at least.
"And now I have to carry you, don't I?" Vio briefly made a face, but put his things away and evaluated the situation. He could drag Blue, but honestly that was a last resort. Blue didn't need to be jostled any more, in case of internal injury.
It wasn't that Vio was weak. Not by any means. However, his strength was mostly in his shoulders, meant for the heavy draw weights of his bows, not for lifting things. If you needed something lifted, you called for Blue, unless Blue was the thing you needed lifted.
Well, nothing for it. Vio pulled some brush over the pile of armor and Blue's hammer, to cover the shine. He'd come back for it all.
He lifted Blue's arm, and startled when he saw Blue's eyes open.
"Hey! Are you awake? Can you walk?" Perhaps the question was a little bit preemptive. Blue scowled and went to touch the bandage on his forehead, but Vio took his hand away. Awake was a good sign.
"Mm… Vi?"
"Yes. We were clearing out a few monsters from the moat, and you fainted."
Blue dropped his hand. "I feel funny."
"Yes, I expect that's the poison." Internally, Vio cursed. Blue was not in a position to walk. He pushed Blue up to sitting—Blue did not help—and got Blue's arms around his neck from behind.
"Hey Vi?" Blue asked, dead weight as Vio pushed with his legs, getting them both off the ground with Blue balanced awkwardly on his back.
Vio grunted at the weight. Sure, he could walk like this. Probably. "What."
"Your hair smells nice."
Ah. Delirium. Blue would never say that sort of thing out loud.
"Thanks." Vio took a few steps, readjusted, and kept going. Sure, Blue was heavy, but they'd make it.
"It's like…" Blue mumbled, then stopped to think. "Like those flowers I played in as a kid… those ones. Remember those ones?"
Vio sighed and started committing Blue's words to memory. If he had to carry Blue all the way home, the least he could do was get some blackmail material. "Yeah, I remember them."
"And you remember… the way they smell?"
"Yes. Blue, how do you feel?"
Blue thought about it for a long time. Vio almost thought he'd fallen asleep. They'd gotten about a third of the way back home before he replied.
"Funny."
"What?"
"You asked… how I feel. It's funny."
Vio tried very hard not to roll his eyes. He failed. "Funny how? Does your head hurt?"
"No. You're starry."
Vio logged that one away. "You can't see?"
"I can see. You're starry."
That didn't make sense. "Why am I starry?"
Blue paused again, though not for quite as long this time. "Because… stars sparkle. They're pretty. Light on dark."
"I'm… pretty," Vio said flatly. His back hurt.
"Mm."
"Thank you, never say that again, please." This time, Vio succeeded in keeping his laugh inside. He'd have to replay this for Blue in front of the others. Or, even better, in front of Erune.
Blue grunted again and shifted, which made Vio stumble, but moving was a good sign. "And stars… are predictable… they're heavy."
Where in Hyrule had Blue gotten that? " You're heavy. And paying for whatever doctor I have to go to after this."
"You're heavy."
"Blue, that makes no sense."
"You make no sense."
Vio, ever the braincell, did not respond. His breath came short, and his back burned. His legs weren't happy, either.
Eventually, the house came in sight, glowing in the dusk. Golden light spilled through the windows, dappled onto Red's vegetable garden and the bushes. Vio let out a laugh and continued trudging. They'd get in shouting distance soon.
"Hey, Vi?" Blue asked.
"What this time?"
"Do you… remember the guards?"
Vio rolled his eyes. "Which guards?"
"The ones earlier today." Blue squeezed him a little more.
"Those guards, yes. I do remember," Vio said, being as patient as he could.
"I think," Blue whispered, breath blowing across Vio's neck, "I think the redhead has a crush."
"Oh, does he?"
"Yeah, on you. He looked at you with hearts in his eyes. I know. I could see them."
Vio, frustratingly, felt his face begin to heat. He scowled. "No, you didn't. Those are impossible to see, you were imagining them. And, anyway, even if he did, he isn't my type."
Blue hummed knowingly. "I know. You prefer the bad boys."
That made Vio turn red. "Blue!"
"What?" He sounded entirely innocent, and it occurred to Vio that he really didn't know what he was saying. He struggled for a moment with words.
"I love you. Remember that, okay?"
"Love you too, Vi."
Vio filled his lungs. "Green! Red! Come get this idiot before I drop him!"