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Wild loved the chain of Links. While there were there special moments, at the end of the day, they were like brothers.
He had only known them for a couple of months, but they were already like family to him.
He really only had one small complaint- they wouldn’t let Wild cook for them.
Apparently, none of the others could cook either, so they were stuck just eating rations of dried of tasteless food.
The solution was easy, Wild would become their cook but for some reason whenever he volunteered, they’d turn him down and if he tried to make something anyways, they’d run away until long after he had already put away all the leftover portions into his slate. He was starting to run out of room for anymore.
Perhaps the other heroes preferred tasteless hard to eat jerky, rather than a nice meal.
Only whenever they ended up in a town, they were thrilled to eat whatever was available acting like the basic meal of powdered eggs was a blessing from the heavens.
He just didn’t understand it.
Wild was well aware of the quality of his food and often times people in his Hyrule would call it gourmet and blush over it. And yet still the other heroes couldn't even be found near it.
There was only one solution. One he rather dreaded. He would have to ask.
So, the next time the chain was gathered around the fire choking down the charred remains of some poor animal, he brought a spoon to a metal pot, successfully gaining the other heroes attention.
“Okay, that’s it! Why are you so opposed to eating anything I make?” Oops he meant to ask in a calm manner.
“Cub.” Twilight shook his head fondly, “None of us can cook, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re just fated to stick to rations.”
“But I can cook!”
“I love the effort, but It would probably be better for your health if you stopped trying.” Warriors practically shuttered as he commented.
“Better for m- you guys won’t even look at what I’m making!”
“We learned our lesson about being near one of us attempting to cook, after Hyrule's goop exploded all over us- it took a whole week to get out.”
Hyrule huffed but didn’t disagree.
“Come on just give me one chance to make something! If even one of you hate it, I’ll never cook again!”
“We’ve already tried your awful cooking!” Wind shouted in a dramatic fashion as he pretended to gag.
Okay, Wild was very insulted now- because one no they had not, and two his cooking was not awful.
“When?!”
“When we first met! Remember before we had gotten the chance to explain the whole hero thing? We had to chase you for days and when we finally caught up you fed us that mush before finally settling down and letting us explain!” Sky looked green as he mentioned it.
Wild was about to protest when the memories of their first meeting caught up with him and oh- that actually made a lot of sense.
——————————————————————
Link had been enjoying his week. Had been.
That was until word reached his ear about a group of about eight well-armed men wondering around Hyrule asking about him- suspected Yiga.
Too bad for them he had just finished up his hunting spree of killing every known Lynel, Talus, and Hinox across Hyrule and therefore was low on supplies, too tired and quite frankly just wasn’t in the mood to fight anything else.
Unfortunately, he was being requested by several people to check up on the matter. Stealth it was.
He dressed in his sneakiest gear and began to watch the interesting Yiga... they were very special. Very special indeed.
They were surely entertaining to watch stumble around at least. At first, he thought they were dumber than the average Yiga- which was saying something, but it was quickly proven that besides their interesting behaviors they were for a matter of fact smart-ish.
Usually, Link was very good at the whole stealth thing if he wanted to be and after all the practice he had, he was hardly ever caught. This group though seemed to have eyes everywhere. He couldn’t so much as move to itch his leg without the group catching on to his presence.
And endless game of cat and mouse pursued as every time he tried to watch them; they gave chase until they lost him and he was able to sneak back over for at most a couple of hours before being caught again.
Finally, after days of the game, with no progress on either side, he decided it was time to shift methods.
Link teleported to his home in Hateno which he knew was currently empty of any other people. Zelda was off studying something with Purah, she likely wouldn’t be home for several days. If she caught him doing what he was about to do she’d surely scold him endlessly.
He pulled out a collection of the Yiga's favorite food and monster guts.
The Yiga had always been stubborn about never wasting a single banana, and insistent that it was always the best thing they had ever eaten.
He had once watched a foot-soldier choke down half a banana that had fallen in the mud unpeeled and then send praises towards the banana for being so grand and yummy as if he hadn’t been turning an odd green.
Oh, this was going to be fun- let’s see how the Yiga liked this.
—————————————-
“No- no! Ha!” Wild couldn’t decide if he wanted to apologize or laugh at the reminder of what he had made the other heroes eat. Maybe a mix of both.
At the time, once they had proven they were not Yiga's by spitting out the gunk and swearing to never touch a banana again, they explained everything to him. And he was a little too distracted about the whole thing to remember what he had just fed the other versions of himself.
“I only fed that to y’all because I thought you were Yiga! That wasn’t food! I swear I can cook better than that!” Wild was holding back laughter as he practically begged for his second chance.
“If it wasn’t real food then what was it?”
Wild promptly ignored Warriors concerned question and focused on turning pleading eyes to the member who was the weakest towards him- Twilight. “Please, it’ll taste good I swear!”
“Cu-“
“Please.”
Twilight groaned, “Fine, you better not make me regret this. Do you have ingredients?”
“Yup!” Wild beamed as he slid the slate off his belt loop and began to shuffle through his inventory- this meal was going to be perfect.
The others held back their protest and settled back, seemingly agreeing to give him one last chance- besides Warriors who continued to try to ask what was the mush that he had fed them. It was probably better for everyone if he continued to not answer. The captain eventually gave up with a sigh and joined the others in waiting.
Eyes were glued to his every move as he prepped for a gourmet meat soup. After another thought he decided that he would also provide honeyed apples as a way to truly make up for what he had made for them taste the first time around.
And then it was finished.
Drool was dripping from every mouth as he began to split the pot into nine bowls and place a honeyed apple for everyone on an additional side plate.
The group didn’t waste a second to dig in. And dig in they did.
Wild couldn’t help but feel proud at the delighted faces of his brothers.
Slurps and burps were the only sounds to fill the air as the group ate like they hadn’t ever been fed before.
“A-re you telling me we could have been eating stuff like this the whole time!” Wind exclaimed as he slurped down the last of his bowl and moved onto the apple.
Wild nodded feeling a little smug to be proven right about his skills, “Yup, been making things like this for myself from the start.”
Groans filled the air as the other heroes recognized that they could have been feasting for all that time instead of eating hard tack and the like.
“I still want to know what you fed us the first time around.” And Warriors was back to his question.
“Trust me, it’s better for all of us if I never, and I mean never tell you.”