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When Wild woke up, only the gentle chirping of crickets and the croaking of different frogs and toads was heard.
While his breathing was heavy and weak all at the same time while tears welled at the corners of his eyes, and it was quiet. He had nightmares every once in a while, but the more he recovered his past and what his life was like before and during the calamity, the more frequent they became.
He often felt horrible because of his nightmares—not only because of the bad memories plaguing his mind, but also because his dreaming mannerisms usually woke the others. Honestly, why wouldn’t one of their own brothers screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night wake the rest of the chain up?
Either way, Wild didn’t know why tonight was different. It was a similar dream to usual: burning buildings and bodies to go with it. It was vivid, and filled him with a sense of familiarity. Whether it was because he's had this very dream before or because he actually lived through it, he didn't know. The difference this time--
There was no screaming and minimal tears, just heavy breathing and an uncomfortable amount of sweat.
The Champion sat up as quietly as possible, ensuring his Sheikah slate was firmly attached to his hip and that he had plenty of arrows to reload his bow with, just in case.
Upon creeping outside, careful not to wake any of his brothers that he shared their travel tent with, he spotted Twilight in front of the now barely alive fire, watching for monsters.
With just the first official step outside, Twilight spun his head around in response to Wild’s footsteps in the grass.
“Wild?” Twilight noticed The Champions slight flinch when he initially whipped his head around, but upon realization of who was truly behind him, his shoulders immediately loosened and most of the tension left his body.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you,”
With the way Wild looked away, one would think all the tension that left Twilight immediately transferred to his cub.
Twilight knew something was wrong. Sometimes it was hard to read Wild, especially after he recovered a memory of some sort, but right now? He was as readable as the bedtime stories Twilight had essentially memorized from reading them to the kids in Ordon. The sweat on his forehead, his slightly puffy eyes, shaky hands, and even down to the fact that he hadn’t even put on his shoes, all made The Rancher worry.
“No—no, don’t apologize. Just… wasn’t expecting you.” Twilight said, his light southern drawl steady and gentle. He scanned the terrain behind him briefly, determined it to be safe, and quickly turned back to The Champion and beckoned him over to the log he sat on that lay near their small fire.
Wild hesitantly complied, sitting just inches away from the Ordonian.
Twilight rested his hands on his knees, turning his head to look at the lighter blond. “D’ya want to talk about it?”
Wild hummed. “I don’t know. I’ve spoken to you about it before—I just can’t sleep.” He fixed his eyes on the ground between his feet, avoiding eye contact with Twilight.
Wild felt like this was happening constantly. He wasn’t really used to sleeping much—After all, the most rest he usually got while exploring on his own was just sitting near a warm fire, allowing the dancing flames to ease his mind and give him a break from his own thoughts. However, with the rest of the chain, they insisted on him getting some proper sleep. But sleep only led to more nightmares, and Wild considered it a lucky night if he slept dreamlessly.
“Was it a nightmare? Or, could you just not fall asleep?” Twilight refused to take his eyes off of The Champion, no matter how much the other refused to look back at him.
“A Nightmare. It was not as bad as other nights. Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you for something so trivial.” Wild could only feel shame. He didn’t feel like the stoic knight he was made to be, even if Zelda technically considered him less of a knight now and instead more of a partner, it just still felt wrong.
He would look back at the memories he had slowly garnered along his adventures and maybe felt a sense of Déjà vu, or perhaps nostalgia, even.
But he still didn’t see himself in those memories. He saw the stoic, personal knight of Princess Zelda—not him, the curious, slightly reckless boy who didn’t know what he was doing up until about six or seven months ago.
“No, it’s not ‘trivial’, cub. Look—it’s normal to be affected by what happened to ya. I can’t fully understand what you went through, but from what you’ve told me, you’ve gone through a lot-“
“But you guys have, too. It’s not fair that I bother everyone with my issues while no one else does,” Wild didn’t bring his eyes up, preferring to pick at his dirt crusted nails.
“Wild, that’s not how it works. We all went through stuff, yes, but you gotta understand that we talk about it with each other as well—you’re not the only one who’s spoken up about their issues, you just don’t see it from the others as much. I talk to you and Time about my woes and my travels all the time, and Time doesn’t mind listening at all. I don’t mind listening to you at all.” Twilight shifted closer to Wild, just barely not touching shoulders. He didn’t want to force anything when he knew Wild might be feeling agitated.
Twilight sighed. “Our stories aren’t meant to be compared that way. Sure, we boast and compete about the biggest monsters we’ve beat, but when it comes to trauma and all those bad memories, we just gotta acknowledge that we all went through some rough stuff. It’s not a matter of better or worse,”
Wild felt his cheeks redden slightly. He was speaking impulsively, not thinking right. He knew what Twilight was saying was true, he just wasn’t thinking about it.
Twilight was, obviously, not oblivious to Wild’s new realization.
“Cub—it’s okay. Stop shaming yourself for silly things,”
“Sorry,”
“And don’t say sorry either. You've nothing to apologize for,”
Wild sighed.
He finally looked up at Twilight and locked onto his heterochromatic eyes.
They were the same ones as always, the left being a warm, rich brown, and the right being a heavy, dark blue.
They were the same ones he saw when he first met Wolfie—
And it was something so familiar, but with no sense of Déjà vu or guilt.
Wild felt the familiar welling of hot tears behind his eyes, but no tears fell and nothing in him felt upset. He half-consciously leaned against the Rancher, sniffling slightly.
Twilight wrapped a gentle, strong arm around Wild’s shoulder.
“You can cry if ya need to… Even just if you want to,”
Wild sniffed again and let out a shaky breath.
“Or not. Whatever you want right now,” Twilight rubbed Wild’s shoulder, resting his cheek against the top of the Champion’s head.
They sat for a minute, and Wild’s attention was brought back when he noticed Twilight looking up at the stars.
“It’s about 1 AM… It’s almost time for Time to take over. Do ya wanna come with me back to the tent?”
Wild would’ve nodded whether they were already sharing a tent or not, but luckily for them and for the sleep of their brothers, Twilight’s sleeping bag was already near Wild’s, waiting for him to come back from his shift.
Twilight ushered Wild to go ahead and cuddle up in the tent while he made sure Time was awake. After about a minute or two of waiting, Wild heard the cautious and light ruffling of a leather tunic—likely Time slipping on some light armor as he settled by the fire—exit the neighboring tent and watched as Twilight slowly entered their own, gingerly stepping over his brothers and making his way to his sleeping bag next to Wild.
Wild kept his hand close to Twilight, prepared to reach out to him in the night if needed. The tent was dark and he couldn’t actually see Twilight, but he didn’t need to see him to know he was there and to feel comforted.
And for the rest of the night, he slept dreamlessly.