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There were times Hyrule wished he hadn’t established himself as the party healer.
Only ever for a fleeting moment, mind, before the very idea made him sick. He might have been only half fae, but that half was enough to make it against his very nature not to help those in pain. Even before he found out in the worst possible circumstances that his most powerful healing spell could be used on others he had busied himself with everyone’s injuries, setting bones and stitching up wounds to allow potions to do their work. He still did that, of course, sharing the field medic duties with Warriors. However, now that he knew his magic was powerful enough to reach outside himself he could not bear the thought of allowing his brothers to suffer when he could aid them.
All this was well and good, of course. While using his magic might exhaust him in the short term, he knew that it would only make him stronger in the long run. Even if that hadn’t been the case, he would never have begrudged the other heroes their need of his aid. He wasn’t even unhappy with them for getting hurt, for all that he grumbled about stupid reckless heroes from time to time. After all, it was their shared spirit and desire to help that led to those reckless moments. How could he fault the others for throwing themselves in harm’s way when he was no better than the rest of them?
No, the part that exasperated him to the point of very nearly overpowering his fairy blood was actually getting them to admit when they needed help. All of the Links had a bad habit of dismissing or outright denying anything short of a fatal blow. Their motivations ranged from outright foolish to arguably noble, but no matter the reason they always made Hyrule want to tear his hair out in frustration.
He knew Twilight had simply prioritized bandaging Legend’s badly burned arm over his own less extensive frostbite after an encounter with some particularly vicious wizzrobes from Wild’s era. That much was understandable. What Hyrule was much less understanding about was him neglecting to mention it at all when asked, or indeed until Wind pointed out he had seen Twilight getting blasted with ice. Hyrule spent the whole time he was carefully coaxing the frozen tissue into thawing reminding Twilight that he could not, in fact, reattach any fallen fingers, so the rancher had better look after the ten he had. Twilight had looked sheepish and promised to do better, but Hyrule wasn’t holding his breath.
Wars at least had the excuse of not having as much sensation in his burned arm, which was why he hadn’t noticed the gloom burn on it until he spotted the corroded patch on his sleeve. As Hyrule made sure to point out, though, that simply meant he had to pay extra attention to that area when checking for injuries post-battle. After all, Time had to make an extra effort to avoid dangers from his blind side.
The less than convincing agreement from Time had earned him a lecture of his own. Honestly. He knew most of them had very little experience with being part of a team, Hyrule himself least of all, but he could only wonder how any of them had made it through their lone adventures alive.
Not that he was going to voice that thought. The last thing he needed was for Wild to make some stupid comment about how he hadn’t.
It wasn’t just recent wounds that his brothers were stubborn about. Legend could never admit his joints troubled him until he was so stiff he could barely even walk, while the only sign Wild gave of his scars aching was the halting way he straightened himself after crouching by the cookfire. Granted, the relief Hyrule could give them was limited, but there was still something he could do. There was no reason for them to suffer in silence while he was around, and yet.
Nobody was free of the foolishness. Four nursed a worsening migraine in silence for the better part of a day because he ‘didn’t want to be a bother’. Wind hid what turned out to be a broken finger because so nobody would think he was being a whiny child. Even the usually so very sensible Sky downplayed his breathing problems until he nearly collapsed so he wouldn’t slow them down. None of it made any sense. None of the heroes had ever thought any worse of each other for needing help or time or healing, and if someone had tried Hyrule would have been the first to beat some sense into them. Yet somehow they all seemed to think they were the sole exception to being deserving of rest and care and comfort.
It wasn’t until he was blinking up at the worried faces of Legend and Wind, wondering when he had ended up on the ground, that it occurred to him that he was no different from the rest.
“You absolute idiot,” Legend sighed, the obvious worry and relief in his voice softening the insult. “I know you want to help, but that’s no reason to drain yourself every time someone has a bruise.”
“This wasn’t just a bruise,” Hyrule argued. “Wind’s arm was broken!”
“It had already been set and splinted,” Wind himself argued, showing off the arm in question. “A good potion would’ve taken care of the rest. You didn’t need to hurt yourself because of it!”
“I didn’t!” Hyrule felt rather indignant at the accusation.
“Oh?” Legend lifted his eyebrows. “So when one of us pushes himself too much and passes out, that’s reckless and irresponsible, but when you do it, it’s fine?”
Hyrule wanted to argue about how that was completely different, but the challenging look from Legend told him that wouldn’t go over well. Finally he sighed. “That’s not fair.”
“Never said anything about being fair.” Legend sighed, his voice softening just a bit. “Look, I get that you want to keep us in one piece despite our best attempts otherwise, but you can’t do it at your own expense. Because guess what? We don’t want you to get hurt, either.”
“I’m not actually hurt.” Just feeling weak and exhausted, that’s all.
“You passed out and freaked out the kid, that’s bad enough.” Which had to be true, since Wind didn’t even protest at being called a kid. “That sort of magic usage should be saved for potentially fatal wounds and permanent damage. For anything short of that, you’re not allowed to push yourself too much.”
“Exactly!” Wind agreed before Hyrule could say anything. “If we have to be more aware of how we’re feeling, then you should be too!”
“You keep telling us not to pretend to be stronger than we are,” Legend added. “The same applies to you, you know.”
He really wasn’t any better than the other heroes.