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"Hey, Four?" Hyrule asked, cutting into the smith's internal discussion.
Oh good, Vio thought. Maybe he'll knock some sense into you.
I have plenty of sense! You're just mad that I realized the ocean is stew first, Blue roared in response.
Something has to be simmered for it to be stew. We've been over this!
Shut your stupid nerd mouth! You're just making stuff up!
I am not, you-
Guys! Please stop, whimpered Red, who had had to listen to this for far too long.
Guys, cut it out. Hyrule needs something, Green cut in before Blue could snap something that they would all regret.
"Yes?" Green made Four reply.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you, and this is really random. I'll wait," the medic muttered, seeming flustered as he normally did when speaking to others.
"No, you're okay. Tell me, I wasn't thinking about anything important," Green responded, not wanting to make Hyrule feel bad about something so trivial.
Nothing important?! Vio being wrong is extremely important! argued Blue.
Shut up! the three remaining colors snapped. Green refocused on Hyrule.
"Oh. Um, okay. So, it's a question. You're called Four because you're the Hero of Four, obviously. But why do you have five colors on your tunic?"
He continued babbling but the colors stopped paying attention to his words. The medic was referencing their choice of outfit: a long tunic where one half was purple on top and red on the bottom, the other half was green on top and blue on beneath it, and in the center, there was a large black diamond that enveloped several of the corners.
It was an innocent comment that was likely spurred from simple curiosity (this was Hyrule we were talking about, of course it was) but three of the colors began freaking out.
Vio shut himself off and refused to speak to the rest of them, as he normally did when anything hinted to his old friend Shadow, Red began panicking about what they should say and how he didn't want to lie to them again, and Blue started yelling about how annoying traitors were, which really did not help anyone's mood at all.
That left Green to answer the expectant boy across from him, who had really stopped talking at the worst possible moment. "Oh, um, I..."
That would likely be enough to make Hyrule not push the matter because he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make them uncomfortable. Although Green felt guilty about using such a tactic on someone so unsure and self-conscious, he felt it was necessary for the situation.
He almost got away with it too, but then the pesky Hero of Legend (of course it was Legend) added to the conversation. "Yeah, I've been curious about that as well. I wasn't going to say anything but since Rulie asked..."
"How noble of you," Twilight commented dryly.
The veteran gave no response and continued watching Four. Green promptly panicked at the attention and said something along the lines of, "The colors on the tunic are our siblings' favorite colors."
"You have siblings?"
"Yep," Green responded and mentally smacked himself. Blue mentally smacked him as well. (Your siblings' favorite colors? Seriously?!) Honestly, he was just glad no one had latched on to the fact he had said 'our' and not 'my'.
"How many? Brothers or sisters?" Hyrule asked with interest. Then, in a more hurt tone that made Green feel like a terrible person, he added, "Why didn't you tell us about them?"
Why did you lie, Green? wailed Red.
Vio! Help me out here!
There was absolutely no response. Well, he would just have to improvise some more and if he screwed up it was, officially, Vio's fault. "Three brothers. And they're shy so I figured I wouldn't bring them up."
I am not shy! Blue snapped angrily. And Red's more like a sister anyways.
No, I'm not! Green, Vio, make him stop.
Blue, shut up. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this mess!
The mess you made.
"You have three brothers?" Wind interjected. "Cool! I've only got one sister."
"Er, yeah." Thank goodness nobody had realized he'd said something about four colors and not five.
Unfortunately for Green, he had relaxed too soon because mere seconds later, Twilight then pointed out exactly that.
First Legend, now Twilight. Were all Links this nosy? He didn't have time to ruminate on it because Wind, Legend, and Hyrule latched onto to Twi's words immediately. "Going to explain yourself, smithy?" Legend queried with raised eyebrows.
Green groaned inwardly. Vio, now would be a great time for some help!
Ha! You don't need that smug little brain cell! You need me.
What could you possibly do? Besides make it worse, I mean?
Green, be nice! Red said, managing to admonish while still sounding near tears.
I'll make you a deal. If you let me be in charge next battle, no matter what Vio says, I'll save you. I'm sick and tired of all this waiting on the sidelines and "planning". I want to fight!
Green knew he should object because letting Blue be in charge of anything, especially a fight, was a disaster waiting to happen. However, he didn't have much of a choice. If Vio had a problem with it, he should have spoken up by now. Besides, Vio was the only one who wanted to keep the fact that they could split a secret. If you thought about it, Green was actually doing his brother a favor. (Also, he was extremely tired of fighting the strategic way. Why be a knight in the first place if you weren't going to fight?)
Alright, go ahead, Green relented. What could possibly go wrong?
Blue immediately took charge of Four, looked Legend dead in the eyes, and said the last thing that anyone expected. "What a stupid question. The black sets off all the other colors to make them look cohesive."
Did you just unironically use the word "cohesive"?
There was a moment of surprised silence while they all blinked at Four's statement. Twilight was the first to speak, "Wow, smithy. Quite the fashion expert, are we?"
"Hey, Wars," Legend shouted, making everyone jump slightly, "you've got a fashion rival!"
"You're one to talk, Mr. I Never Wear Pants!" the captain called back.
"That's nice," Hyrule said to Four, grabbing Legend's arm to make sure nothing was thrown across the camp. He was clearly both surprised and amused by the situation, but had the decency to be polite nonetheless.
"Rulie, I think you mean really underwhelming. And boring," Wind corrected in mock sorrow. However, before the medic could feel bad for something that he really shouldn't feel bad about, the sailor perked up and continued speaking. "You know what isn't boring? Pranking Time while he and Wild are gone."
Twilight snorted. "I'm in. I've been meaning to get back at him for dropping that 'I've fought the moon' bomb and then not explaining."
"I'll definitely help with that. You know, I've got this rod that shoots ice. We could do something fun with that."
Their conversation continued, all of the Four drama forgotten. Well, forgotten by all but the colors.
Blue, where did that even come from? Green asked. He was genuinely surprised that his grumpy brother had come up with something about fashion. The weirdest was that it was accurate.
He's so stylish! Red giggled, sorrow from earlier forgotten.
Oh, shut up! I just know a thing or two about color coordination. That's perfectly normal.
Red's right, Vio finally spoke. I'm never forgetting that.
Wait...were you paying attention that entire time and just ignoring me? Green glowered incredulously.
Obviously. Hey Blue, should we get a new tunic for your fancified taste?
Yes. I mean no! I mean ughhhh!! I hate all of you!! Maybe I'll just order you all to kill yourselves in the next battle and you won't have a say because I'll be in charge!
Don't say that Blue. You love us all so much. I'm going to sleep now. All this arguing made me tired, Red murmured sleepily before cutting them out.
So are we getting a new tunic or not? Green prompted, for the sole purpose of annoying his brother.
I don't know. Are we Blue? Vio asked with a smirk that couldn't be seen but was somehow heard nonetheless.
Shut up!!