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Legend hated doing laundry.
It wasn't because it was boring, or tedious, or that he just wasn't used to doing it. No, he had grown up doing his own laundry alongside his uncle, he loved the simplicity of it, how the world slowed down around him and let him think.
What he hated was how much it could hurt, how his fingers stiffened in the cold water and refused to bend fully. How his back ached and shoulders pulled as he bent over whatever stream or basin he had access to. He hated that it used to be so much easier, stains used to be a breeze to scrub out, now he spent his little free time trying not to grimace while his bones ground against eachother with each attempt.
At least he was alone at the moment, no one had to see how far The Hero Of Legend had fallen while he cleaned his precious red mail. The rest of the group was still getting ready for the day, he had slipped off before breakfast was ready to clean up a bit. Time was letting him wander off a bit more, still within screaming distance, but it was an improvement.
It was strange, having people older than him be worried. Granny somtimes gave him a discount when he showed up in her shop activily bleeding. Impa eyed him thoughout dinners with Zelda and the court, watching him eat with what might've been pity in her eyes. Sarahashla gave him advice sometimes. That was about it as of late. He prefered it that way, he didn't like that Time had guessed how old he really was. But the old man had cheated, his stupid lens of truth had ratted him out. Legend had been perfectly content with the others thinking he was in his early to mid twenties.
The old man at least had the decency to not tell them all that he was just newly seventeen, if they started treating him like Hyrule and Wild he would walk into the woods and continue this quest by himself. Hylia could try to stop him if she wanted, he had been waiting to throw a punch her way for years now. He had told Time that, it was the reason he was allowed to be unsupervised right now.
His frustration wasn't making his stiff hands feel any better as he dunked his tunic into the cold stream again and scrubbed at the bloodstains. That was the problem with these black blooded monsters, their blood stained worse than the typical red. It clashed with his tunic horribly, the people of Hytopia would be appalled.
He let out a huff at that amusing thought and tried to stretch out his left hand. No luck, the joints were locking up around his washing bat. He hadn't brought a washing board with him, it had been too big to fit in his magical belt pouch, so a convient rock jutting out of the water had to suffice. The cool morning air wasn't doing him any favors either, so it wasn't just the water's fault. He had been aching from the moment he woke up anyway. In all, the day wasn't shaping up great, he was dreading the marching through the woods that was sure to come after breakfast.
As the clear water began to shift a bit reddish he tried to distract himself from the dull aching pain lancing though his bones. He began to sing a wordless melody. It wasn't anything special, just a tune Ravio liked to hum as he set up his shop in the mornings. Legend liked it, it was upbeat and bouncy and reminded him of home.
He had half the stains out from his outer tunic when uniform footfalls told him that he was not alone, he clicked his jaw shut immediately. He knew those steps, and while he trusted the man not to kill him now, he sure as the dark world wasn't going to give him the opprotunity to tease him. Not over something like this at least, not today. As much as he loved to argue with the captain, he didn't have the energy to keep it from getting ugly fast.
"Didn't know you had such a lovely voice, Vet."
Warriors didn't even know the half of it, the siren transformation had begun to cling to him over the years of using it. If he was fully submerged right now… well his voice wouldn't be something anyone could ignore. As far as his natural voice went though it wasn't all that bad, at least that's what Zel and Ravio told him. He was of the opinion that all the painful transformations since the age of eleven had ripped his throat to shreds, but he could still carry a tune despite the rasping of it.
In his weakest moments, when he dared to think of a life after Hylia was done with him, Legend contemplated becoming a bard. No one knew that though, he planned to keep it that way.
"Well yes, not all of us can make ears bleed on command like the rancher."
Warriors snorted from not far behind him and Legend tamped down the instinct to bolt into the underbrush and run for his life. The knight wouldn't kill him, he was too focused on his own paranoia for that. Besides, he had purposefully been on his own with the captain before, as a test. The man hadn't attempted to kill him, so it was fine.
He had to remind himself of that when Warriors set his sword down between them and knelt at the edge of the stream a few feet away.
"Shouldn't you be babysitting the sailor?"
"He's still asleep."
That tracked, Wind was always the second to last person out of his bedroll, probably something to do with being a teenager and still growing, Legend wouldn't know, he hadn't grown in two years, and he hadn't gotten a full nights sleep since long before then.
He finished scrubbing out another patch of dried blood and clenched his hands so Warriors wouldn't see how they were shaking. Curse his bad circulation and shitty joints. He wasn't sure how much of the discomfort was from how many badly healed injuries he'd managed to gain over the last seven years, and what was just natural. The healers back home couldn't figure it out, they told him to stretch and apply heat and cold as needed. There was no cure, no matter how much harder it made everything.
Legend focused harder on his task as Warriors shucked off his undertunic and dunked his head in the water upstream.
When soap bubbles began mixing with the magically enhanced threads of his tunic he turned his head to glare at the captain.
"What in Nayru's name are you even doing, we bathed two days ago."
Warriors paused his hands, hair full of soap, to smirk over at him. "Looking this good takes effort, Vet."
Legend rolled his eyes. "Your fancy smelling soap is contaminating my clothes."
"Well that's better than all the gunk in your tunic getting in my hair."
The younger scoffed and tried to unclench his hand from the washing bat to move on to a new stain, but his fingers refused to comply. Shit.
"How much did you even pay for that? It smells like flowers." He tried a distraction, just long enough for his fingers to uncurl and start working again. His companions didn't need to know how badly his body worked, he was fine, just overreacting. It was just a little stiffness, if he gave in now he would be useless.
Thankfully, Warriors took the bait.
"Flowers are lovely don't you think?" The man's tone was haughty. "And to be more specific, it's jasmine and sandalwood. They sell it in the marketplace in Castletown, if it interests you so much you can buy some for yourself when we eventually end up there again."
"I'm good," Legend managed to force two of his fingers off the handle, but his thumb and two other fingers were still stuck. It ached like a dull headache. "My soap is just fine."
"But this is shampoo," Warriors insisted somewhat desperately. "I've seen you use one bar for everything, it's heartbreaking honestly, your hair could look so good if you put in the effort."
"Well just get used to that feeling, pretty boy. I clean up just fine."
Warriors didn't respond to that, he just dunked his head back into the chill water to rinse out his hair. Legend counted his distraction as a success as he was finally able to pry his fingers off while Warriors wasn't watching him. His over tunic was stain free now, it was time for his green under tunic to deal with the same treatment.
He deposited his red mail on the line he had hung up previously and stationed his fire rod underneath to help a bit with the drying process. He regarded where the captain was smoothing some kind of product into his hair. For some reason his hair wasn't hanging straight down, it was curling into itself, as if it was always that way.
Strange. That was another thing to file away and think on later. He had more important things to do at the moment.
Such things as, begin the nightmarish process of undoing all the little buttons of his undertunic. His fingers clicked and popped as he started at his neck. Ravio often asked why he even wore the damn thing if it was such a pain. Legend told him it would be a waste of good enchantments already imbued into the garment. The truth though, was that it was a test. As long as he could dress himself then he was fine and he could deal with whatever came his way. Over the last year he had taken to sleeping in the thing, rather than unbutton it each night.
He ignored Warriors sideways glance as he slid the tunic over his head, he knew what his body was. It was a canvas, a masterpiece of Hylia's design, a reminder of what happened to children sent to fight battles. The captain averted his eyes, combing through his wet hair as if he hadn't seen the flogging scars. Good.
His elbows grated in their sockets as he wrestled a spare tunic on. His knees popped loudly enough to make Warriors wince as he knelt back down to the stream and started the cleaning process again.
"You need a vacation or something, that cannot be healthy."
Legend barked out a harsh laugh. "I tried that once, ended up being another lousy quest."
Warriors hummed in what might've been commiseration and began pouring some other product into his hands. Legend had to bite his tongue to avoid harmonizing with the note. He wasn't a child anymore, he couldn't just copy other people's words and mannerisms. He wasn't sure why, but enough people had told him it was childish for him to shut it down.
He was lathering some soap to clean his tunic when Warriors finally brought it up, the topic he had been dreading.
"Your hands are shaking."
"And since when was that your business?" Legend glowered at the water, his hands tight around his tunic, they had gone numb.
"I suppose it's not, but I can take over if you need a break." The knight's voice was uncharacteristically earnest, Legend didn't like it one bit.
"As yes, leave my very magical tunic in the hands of a man who's been living in luxury for the past however long." He sneared at Warriors' various expensive hair products and tools. Even his comb was elegantly carved and polished. "A little cold won't get in my way."
With that settled he forcibly pried his fingers out of the fabric and began using the washing paddle to scrape out blood.
"It's… it's not cold, vet."
Fuck, his poor circulation had lied to him once again.
"Figure of speech."
"Not one I've ever heard," Warriors grumbled as he started pulling at strands of his hair to keep them straight. Again Legend was baffled as to why he was doing such a thing. Ravio always treated his curls with borderline obsessive amounts of care, it was strange to see his vain companion actively messing with his curl pattern.
"Well, maybe you don't travel enough."
Warriors rolled his eyes but left it at that. No part of Legend felt a pang of upset about how easily he gave up, definitely not. That was the point wasnt it? He wasn't here to make friends, not just to lose them again. It had only been a month and he was already failing that simple rule. But 'Rulie was a special case, he was his successor, for some Farore forsaken reason the kid looked up to him. Legend didn't understand it, but he couldn't brush him off, it just felt too wrong in his very soul.
It felt wrong to be so distant with all of them, but he couldn't grow close, he could only stand so many heartbreaks in his life. It was better to keep things on edge, keep his words harsh and demeanor coarse. He couldn't lose friends if he didn't make them in the first place.
Warriors kept at his hair straightening as Legend finished rinsing his tunic and hung it to dry next to his red mail, the skirt of his current garment hung too low for his liking, running would be difficult like this. He was just about to use his fire rod to speed up the drying process when Warriors interrupted him.
"Can I use that to dry my hair?"
Legend could practically smell the burnt hair and hear Warriors complaining for the next few weeks.
"Absolutely not."
"You are positively no fun," Warriors deadpanned.
Legend smirked and cast a small stream of fire just near enough to warm his clothing but just far enough to not set anything alight, he had done this a thousand times.
"I never claimed to be."
Warriors put away his jars and comb and slid his tunic back over his head. Before he left though, he turned to look Legend in the eye. Legend fought to hold the eye contact, but as always it made his skin crawl. He didn't look away though, it was a sign of weakness.
"Next time you need help with something, just ask. One person is not an army, I had to learn that the hard way."
Legend was left a little dumbfounded as Warriors sauntered back to camp, his hair just slightly wavy and face clean of any grime from the road.
Man, he couldn't stand that guy.