Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

credit to liketolaugh for the pain meds mentioned, as far as Sonaiya and I can find she/him/they is the original author using them. https://ao3-rd-18.onrender.com/users/liketolaugh

ok so these notes will spoil a bit of the story but here’s more context for the trigger warnings.

The trigger warning anorexia:

The chain sees Warriors has had less of an appetite and is giving parts of his portion to Wind. The chain thinks a higher up in the army triggered his self doubt induced anorexia, which they think he has cause he's slim and tends to eat like a bird, and thus eats less and trains more. What is really happening is that Warriors overheard Time and Wild when Wild told Time they were running low on a few things (more like basically everything) and Warriors is a concubus (closest I could find to what I want). He feeds off of amongst other things sexual energy, he can drain life force too while having sex (and while out of it but sssst he doesn’t know that yet) but doesn’t really do that as the other will die if he does. He prefers to feed off people that care about him in some way as they taste, for lack of a better word, better but can and will feed of others. He can eat normal food and does get a little bit of energy from it but he can go without, he does need both to keep his body fit though, he can’t survive on only food but he can’t without food at all either, he can just go much longer on a lot less. So he mostly only eats so as not to worry his comrades and because frankly Wild’s cooking is delicious. So he took a bit (lot) less so there is more for Wind who is in a growth spurt. The others don’t know he’s a concubus though! So the chain thinks he’s anorexic when he’s not. It was really just crappy timing, Wars knows that noble is a jerk. I personally head canon that it was Wars’ dad who went off on him but as it is off screen it doesn’t really matter.

The trigger warnings dubious consent, withdrawn consent and rape:

When the Yiga clan captures the chain Legend mouths off at the yiga to come up with a new plan besides torture the hero as that is a cliche and theyve all been there and done that and it doesn’t work. It only pisses the heroes off and exterminates the bad guys with extreme prejudice.
So the Yiga instead decide to rape them. Warriors hearing this is determined to be the victim. He hasn’t eaten in weeks at this point so a gangbang sounds pretty good to him, especially one where he can drain *everything* out of his partners ahem victims. Knowing the Yiga will go for the one who looks the most scared he flinches back at this making them single him out. This however makes the chain think he’s really terrified, oops? So as far as the Yiga and the Chain are concerned they’re raping him and he’s unwilling. Wars however is positively giddy at just the thought of the amount of energy he’s about to get, it’s a walking buffet! One that he doesn’t have to take care not to drain dry! And his brothers who are really not interested in sex with the Yiga are spared! win win! However at one point the Yiga torture him during the sex and he’s no longer willing to endure it but if he doesn’t they’ve implied Wind looks interesting too and Wars is not going to let that happen. I was not originally planning it to go as it does but Wars was adamant ( and holy f, i never got it when writers said that but shit Wars work with me here!)

Torture:
well it's the Yiga clan and they have a hero at their mercy who's trying to protect 8 other heroes. need i say more?

Chapter Text

Ever since they’d left Warriors era, he’d been off. He ate less and was constantly running drills when they weren’t moving, and he’d taken up more than his share of watches, too. They could all see that the rant delivered to him by that fat higher-up had cut into him. His Captain mask had gone up and stayed up for almost a week after. Legend was nastily reminded of the Warriors that had first joined the group. Before he had relaxed and started to trust them, Warriors thought he had to be *perfect* at all times because a war had been fought over him and he needed to live up to the expectation.

Personally Legend thought the guy a hypocrite. Calling Warriors fat when the guy was at least 3 times Warriors size, if not more?! and lazy? When he was running all over time and space fighting on, sometimes, limited rations while the guy only had to snap a finger before being served a 3-course meal!? The man whore part he couldn’t comment on. He'd never heard Wars talk about picking someone up but he did hit the tavern in every town they hit so maybe he was picking people up left and right? Either way, that wasn’t the guy's business! Wars did his share of the chores and then some! And to top it all off, they’d had a portal open up underneath their feet mid restock! And since they had landed in the middle of the no-man's land in Hyrule’s era, it took them 5 days just to reach drinkable water! So when Wars all but stopped eating, there was no convincing him!

Luckily, they got a portal to Wild’s era earlier today, and they landed near a pretty good foraging spot according to Wild, just a single Stalnox and a lot of Octoroks to contend with. They’d made camp at the edge of what Wild called Rutile Lake on the far side from the Stalnox. There was an abandoned camp nearby but it was closer to the Stalnox and it was always hit or miss with whether those things revived at night or not. And the clearing it was in was small and the water source near that camp was smaller, more a permanent puddle than anything else, and contained Stalizalfos, though Wild had made a quick run over to it to harvest some spicy peppers and check for acorns. A few among their number had protested having to make do with a puddle when there was a small lake 10 minutes the other way where they could finally do laundry and bathe! The others who had gone foraging had come back with flint and rock salts from some ore deposits they'd broken open, as well as endura carrots, crow meat, stamella shrooms, courser bee honey, endura shrooms, fleet lotus seeds, Hylian shrooms, a few armoranth, more acorns, and even some bird eggs. Twilight had gone a little farther afield and snagged them a goat, and Hyrule had gotten lucky and found a patch of hearty truffles.

That evening, while Warriors was off to the lake for a bath (he’d stopped doing that with the others, too, almost as if even the thought of them touching him scared him), the group came together almost subconsciously around the cooking pot where Wild was working on a hearty stew. “So, ahm I thah only one a us to be worried ‘bout the prettah boy?” Twilight started off his country drawl shining through heavily tonight.

“Wow, Twilight, drawl even more why don’t you?” Legend started off before sighing and continuing, “But you’re right. He’s definitely not doing too great.”

“Yeah, it’s not like Hyrule and I don’t appreciate the extra food while we’re rationing, but he needs to eat too!” Wind exclaimed.

“Not a fight we can win, Sailor,” Time said, his one eye looking out to where Wars was. “We couldn’t back then when food was tight, so we probably can’t now, either. I’m just glad he only snuck parts of his food to you two instead of stopping altogether. All we can do is pick up the pieces once we do have enough food. I’m just glad we’re finally out of your Hyrule, Rule. No offense meant, but I still don’t understand how you do it.”

“None taken, that field is the worst in all in my Hyrule. I'm just glad we didn’t land even further in!” Then he frowned. “Wait, back then you said? He’s done this before!?”

Wind sighed, “Yeah, you know Time and I met him before during the war of the eras. Well, Time looked 10 due to time shenanigans out of his control while he was actually around 22 and I was 12. So every time the rations ran low because the supplies couldn’t get through, he gave Time and me his portion, wouldn’t take no then, either. Zelda and Impa and even Linkle noticed soon enough with a little intervention from us and split theirs with him so 3 portions covered four people and his went to us but yeah. Food and Wars don’t always get along.”

Wild made a noise before signing, “Well, we got the goat Twilight killed this afternoon as well as the other foraged and hunted food, so no more rationing starting tonight! We’re about a day away from a stable too so I can restock on wheat, rice, milk, butter and multiple species of fish if I make a quick teleport round while you guys wait there.” Then he frowned into the pot before throwing a few more mushrooms towards Four to dice. “And he’s getting a big portion whether he wants it or not tonight!”

Time made a gesture, the signal Wars had rounded the bend around the hill between camp and the water, and the talk around the pot split off in different talks at once. Four returned the now-cut mushroom and Wild added it in. Stirring while Wars came closer, he nodded in satisfaction and took everyone’s bowls out of his slate and started dishing up.

Wars’ hair was still a bit damp but his trousers and leathers were clean and dry. His torso was a bit thinner than they’d like to see, judging by how tight the laces on the sides of his leathers were, but it could be worse.

“Wars! Just in time, dinner’s ready!” Wind exclaimed happily, pretending to spot him out of the corner of his eye where he was sitting next to Four cleaning up some of their gear. All of the chainmail and Time’s plate armor were in the slate because the lava fields had been too hot to wear them and they’d not put them back on again. Their leathers would have to do until morning, they'd unanimously decided. In fact, most of their gear was in the slate. The less straps they'd had on their bodies, the less chance of heat blisters.

Wars just smiled and sat down next to Wind on the ground, back leaning against one of the trees they’d bombed down to use as seats. Wild handed him back a bowl and he set it beside Four before doing the same with the next bowl for Wind and then taking the third for himself. The rest of the bowls were passed out and silence descended as everyone savored the hearty meal. When the bottom of Wars’ bowl came into sight Wild dropped another ladle full in, when Wars opened his mouth to protest he just raised an eyebrow and Wars mumbled, “Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it. There’s enough again.” He started eating again. Wind and Time shared a victorious look over his head. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all! The relief was short-lived as Wars only got about a quarter way in before going a bit green and passing it off to Wind. They let it go because he looked as if he was seconds away from throwing it all back up. Wind just passed the bowl to Rulie, since his Hyrule was bad and he was always thinner than the others, to see how far he got in finishing it up.

“So what's the plan for tomorrow?” Wars asked once his color wasn't as green anymore. “Where are we going?”

Wild spooned the last of his meal into his mouth and started signing, the scars on his throat raw and aching after the intense heat of Rulie’s Hyrule (try saying that four times fast!). “We head down the slope that way, then we’ll be in Dalite Forest, there’s a road in there that we follow. Then at the fork in the road we go right, across the Manhala bridge and then we’re at Outskirt stable. There aren’t any towns nearby but there is, as usual, a shrine so I can teleport to the major settlements and buy out their shops. If I hit Goron City first, that Gerudo lady that pays premium for gems should be there and I can get money there, though the last few times I spoke to her she was only interested in diamonds and she wants 10 at a time. Isha at Gerudo also always needs gems but she pays a little less. Though it might just be worth it to skip the heat of death mountain, especially since the only food they sell that we are low on are sugar cane and Goron spice. Rito village sells sugar cane too. And we don’t have 10 diamonds right now.”

“Sounds good. Now, judging from the fact that you lot have obviously been conspiring, I’m off to bed,” Wars said, before getting up to where one of them had rolled his bedroll out.

“Us? Conspiring? Against our own brother?!” Hyrule protested.

"Oh? Is that right? So which watch do I have then?” Wars said, raising an eyebrow in the patented “disappointed elder brother” look he’d perfected during the war.

When only silence met him he said, “Thought so, goodnight.” He was well aware that the others thought he was starving himself on purpose on occasion, but he’d rather they think him anorexic than know that he was an actual honest-to-Hylia sex demon who needed to get laid like, twice a week at minimum. Food did help, but he needed both (sexual) energy and food, and less food than energy, so when rations were tight he’d just skip the food so the others had more. He especially didn’t want them to know at first since all of them were in the business of killing demons; most demons sided with Ganon after all. Oh, he had no doubt that once it sunk in and they'd had time to process, most of them, if not all would be fine with it and some would even be willing to help him out *cough* parts of Four *cough* but he wasn’t going to ask. The time for that had passed, he couldn’t rightly bring it up now when he’d kept silent during the “anything we need to know?” conversation they’d had early on. He had the conversation all planned out, depending on who confronted him about it. He could see it now if Sky was there. “Oh sure, Sky, I would have told a group containing the demon god killer, ‘Oh by the way, I’m a sex demon, mind feeding me?’ When do you suppose I should have said something huh? The group was too new then for me to trust you lot with this, and then, well, it never seemed like a good time…” That would hopefully raise eyebrows long enough for them to stop and think. If not, oh well–he was usually fast on his feet. He could go hide for a bit while they cooled down. The next portal switch would dump them together again, but hopefully they’d have cooled down by then. Twilight, he wasn’t worried about. He’d seen enough weird BS in the twilight realm to realize there were shades of gray to everything. And Four–well, Shadow. Enough said. Time and Wind would hopefully remember that it wasn’t ever a problem during the war and realize he had it under control. He just needed a brothel every once in a while. Wasn’t the best tasting energy, that came from people that cared about him as a person but beggars can’t be choosers. The others in the chain though, some of them were literally hunted by demons.

The night passed in comfortable silence. At around 2 am, a Stalkoblin riding a Stalhorse entered the forest. Wild had that shift and had gone up onto the outcropping, so he saw it coming along the path. He took a headshot and killed the Stalkoblin in one blow. The Stalhorse meandered off after that. It looked scary, but like all horses, wasn’t aggressive. He switched out at 4 am with, well, Four and headed to bed.

At around 6 however, pandemonium erupted when Four heard an eerie laugh on the wind and had just enough time to let out a warning shout before pain erupted in the back of his head and he fell unconscious. The others woke at his yell but most didn’t get any further than sitting up before there was a windcleaver or a vicious sickle at their throat. Wild had it worse–the Yiga, for that's who it was, knew about his time-slowing tricks and had jammed a blade through each of his arms between the bones into the ground, staking him to it.

Wild let out a pained yell making those who could twitch over to him and one of the blademasters purr out, “Now, now, none of that. We were after the princess but if you cooperate we won’t gut him where he lies.”

Glaring they subsided and one by one had their arms tied to their backs and their weapons taken. When one of the footsoldiers approached Hyrule with rope, one of the blademasters snapped, “Chains for that one,” making a different foot soldier rush forward with one of two sets of iron manacles. The other set was promptly snapped onto Legend. Seems like they knew those two had magic. One of the Yiga footsoldiers gave Wild a few sloppy bandages before tying his arms behind his back, then tied his feet and knees together as well and slung him over the shoulder of one of the blademasters. Seems like they knew how resourceful he was, but wanted him alive. Four was slung over the shoulder of the biggest blademaster, head still bleeding but also getting a bandage, and they were marched off. Two footsoldiers and a blademaster for each hero. The footsoldiers accompanying Four and Wild’s helped the blademaster up the steeper bits by offering a hand or elbow. The blademasters almost never took them, but the footsoldiers offered every time regardless.

They headed north-east to the edge of the plateau they were on, then the Yiga teleported them across to the small copse of trees in the valley which contained Lake Illumeni. A brief pause was given for the chain to get back on their feet from the vertigo and to hoist Hyrule over a shoulder as well, the jump made him pass out. The Moblin along the way snorted at them, but let them pass unhindered before the Yiga and the Chain headed up the incline on the Cliffs of Ruvara towards the Vatorsa Snowfield. They stuck to the inclines as much as possible, but sometimes they were teleported up a ridge higher. They took a 5-minute break after every jump. It seemed teleporting with someone was tiring for the Yiga and uncomfortable for the passenger. There were a few moments when it looked like both Time and Wars would also pass out. Each time the Yiga seemed content to wait until their color went back to resembling normal. It was almost as if the two heroes had been deemed too big to carry for long.

As they passed below a stone bridge, night began to fall and wolves attacked. The temperature had been decreasing fast the higher they went and the later it got and their breaths had been visible for a while. The pack of wolves now jumping at their throats only added to the Chain’s misery. The Yiga quickly killed the wolves and took the meat. The chain could feel the evil grins as they did so while staring at Twilight, almost as if it was a silent threat. Legend was stumbling along where a footsoldier had his elbow, the cold messing up his joints. They were suspiciously courteous so far–as long as they cooperated it was almost as if they were just hiking along, but the second one tried stopping or slowing they were backhanded and reminded that they were in fact prisoners. The few times Legend had slipped, the Yiga hanging onto him just pulled him back up. The fifth time though he’d started angrily muttering under his breath about being stuck with the crippled one. They crossed the ridge covered in snow, paying no mind to the now shivering and trembling underdressed heroes until Legend slipped and couldn’t get up again due to the cold having seeped into his bare legs. Sighing, one of the blade masters threw him over his shoulder and barked at the others, “Carry the small one, he’s slowing us down!” Wind was then also thrown over a shoulder, as was Sky who had been panting at the pace they’d been forced into, his blademaster losing patience as well. The cold dry air made breathing easier for the Skyloftian but the brutal pace and the smoke from the teleports had agitated his lungs. A fit was inevitable at this point.

At the very top of the incline they headed left and passed a shrine, following the incline down again. They passed through a Lizalfos camp, the Lizalfo hissing at them but also letting them pass. Just as they passed though the wind changed and blew a face full of smoke into their faces. The blademaster carrying Sky paused at something unseen and turned his head towards him, a shudder went through Sky’s frame and he was hurriedly yanked off the shoulder and into a bridal carry. Gasps and pants made his entire frame shudder. The fit had arrived. “His potion,” Time said, “in the pouch on his hip. He’ll suffocate without it, just open the bottle and keep it under his nose.” It seemed as if the blademaster would ignore it and started walking again, but the second the group was past the camp and around the bend, Sky was sat up against a wall and a footsoldier was holding the bottle under his nose. The other awake heroes were forced to their knees where they stood and the carried ones were sat down against the wall as well. The Yiga really seemed to be intent on keeping them alive, and mostly uninjured, which was very worrying. It took almost 20 minutes for Sky’s breathing to calm down and he was really out of it, but the blue tinge to his lips had receded. The footsoldier looked at Time holding up the bottle and said, “This have another round in it or throw it out?” Time looked startled at being asked but answered honestly, “It should have another few rounds in it but Sky can tell best once he recovers a bit.” The Yiga nodded and corked it again before putting it back where he found it. The blademaster hoisted him up again but kept him in a bridal carry this time. It didn’t look like Sky was really aware of where he was at this point. The others were forced up again as well and, where necessary, slung back over shoulders.

After they got moving, they hung to the left and yet farther down. They went through a canyon with the air warming again as they went until they hit a cliff again overlooking the back of one of the Shrines Wild had called a champion trial. Right next to it was a deep pit, and on the far side of the pit, an entrance. It was nearing dawn again. Worryingly enough neither Hyrule nor Four had stirred in all this time. Sky had passed out in the Blademaster’s arms, the energy drain of having an attack too big for him to fight against any longer. The heroes that were still walking on their own power were unceremoniously pushed down this last cliff and into the sand pit. The Yiga landed around them in a crouch, the one carrying Sky stumbling a little, but quickly steadied by a foot soldier. Then, not even giving the heroes time to get back on their feet, they were dragged inside. The door closed with an ominous boom.

Chapter Text

When Four woke up, their head was in someone’s lap and their head was killing them. He could hear the others around them and feel a stickiness at the back of their head in their hair. Groaning a bit, they were shushed and carefully turned onto their side, their head supported by a thigh. Opening their eyes carefully, he looked into Twilight's eyes.

“How are you doing, Smithy?” Twilight asked softly with very careful enunciation.

Four could only groan in response and close their eyes again. "Wha’ ‘appended?” they slurred out. “Wild called them Yiga, said there shouldn’t be this many left.” A voice above them answered. ‘Sky,’ their mind supplied after a few seconds. They squinted their eyes open again and realized they were in a stone room with bars on the doorway. ‘Oh, that's not good,’ flitted through their mind before they looked around where everyone was. Twilight was next to them and Sky was acting as their pillow ‘hmm a bit pale, think he had an attack while we were out?’ with Time next to him and Wild propped up against Time’s shoulder. Sky was half leaning on his other. It almost looked like his head had been on Time’s shoulder not that long ago.

Iron chains went from their wrists to the wall above their heads, looking like they were ill-fitting as well; he could already see chafing on Time’s wrist. Wild had messy bandages around both arms and was still napping on Time it looked like. Leaning forwards a bit, they could see Warriors on Wild’s other side; his head hidden behind his knees and curled up in a ball shaking slightly with Wind on Twilight's other side. Wars seemed to have a lot more slack in his chains than the rest of them as there was a pile of links next to him on the ground before it moved up towards his left wrist. He and the others only seemed to have a foot of slack while Wars looked to have 4 or 5 feet. Too bad he seemed stuck in a bad memory, or was he just really cold? Hyrule and Legend were next to Wind, with Legend sitting slightly in front of Wind and Hyrule as if to protect them. Sitting up they stared at Wars ‘he really isn’t coping well, is he?’ Green’s frown formed on Four’s face.

Red thought to all of them, ‘No, he looks pretty bad do you think we can reach him for a hug?’

Blue carefully didn’t roll Four’s eyes, ‘A hug isn’t gonna help, Red!’

‘How do you know? it could!’ and with that the colors started bickering, making Four flinch and Twilight try to block the torch light from their eyes a bit more.

Then Wild seemed to twitch awake, ears flicking every which way, making Sky mutter an apology before pushing him up and behind Twilight's broad back. Wind was pushed back as well while Sky moved forward so his and Twi’s bulk could shield as much of the two smaller heroes as possible. They knew what bad guys sometimes did and while Four was an actual adult, their body wasn’t big enough not to tear if one of the blademasters got any funny ideas. So far the Yiga had been downright civil, but who knew when that would change. Hyrule was pushed even further behind Legend making him hiss a bit as the manacle shifted. ‘Oh yeah, iron. I’ll give him our headband later.’

The footsteps that had made Wild twitch awake where he laid against Time became audible to the rest of them, then two blademasters came into view and looked into the cell, though where their eyes were looking was impossible to tell with the masks.

“So these are the heroes of courage? Bwah, pathetic looking lot. Think we can have a bit of fun making them scream before the blood moon?” one said to the other one, before he could reply Legend snarled, “Oh please? This again? Why is it that all of Ganon’s servants can only think of one form of amusement? We've all been there and done that, and I don’t know of the ones who tried it on them but mine died. Slowly.”

“There’s more ways than one to have fun, boy, and we ain’t got no ladies left,” one said with a sinister smile they could hear in his voice. At this, Wars flinched back hard enough his chain rattled. Unseen to everyone in the room and hallway he had a smirk on his face. ‘Hook, line….’

“Oho! and I think we just found our volunteer!”

‘And sinker! Bingo, I got myself a feast, won’t taste too good probably, but I’ll take it. Better me than one of the others.’ Wars thought to himself as the blademaster was talking before quickly wiping the smirk from his face. The smell of sexual tension had been in his nose and mouth since the second they got caught and he was HUNGRY. Even the normal food he ate didn’t do anything anymore but taste good as his energy had dipped too low. Might as well feast on rapists and murderers while they were here. After all, he didn’t have to make sure he only took their sexual energy–he could claim their life force too and build a stockpile so he could last longer before having to feed again. If they passed out, they’d probably just be dragged off him and replaced. It took a bit to die from the energy loss so hopefully they wouldn’t connect the dots too fast. He wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable injuries and hoped they'd spare him some lube but he could take it better due to his size than some of the others, and he’d get something out of it aside from trauma, too.

Legend paled. This was not what he tried to do! He was trying to get them close enough that he could hurl the knife Hyrule had had in his boot into one of their throats! Not have them take Wars to be raped! He’d already suffered that fate during the war, and he was obviously not as over it as he’d claimed.

As the blademaster advanced on him, Wars’ head shot up from between his knees and he tried backing away. While his chain did in fact have more give than the others, it was not enough to get away. Soon enough, he was being dragged by the throat out of the cell, bracing and fighting all the way. Hands tied behind his back, giving him no leverage. As they went through the hallways, Warriors made a mental count of every Yiga he saw and a mental map of the hallways. Wild had said he had been here before but he hadn’t seen everything, and Wars still needed to get his brothers out the desert entryway. The way they came in would be too difficult with Wild’s arms the way they were unless he killed every soul in here. ‘8 plus another 2 in that sleeping area makes 10. Oh, another blademaster that makes 3, can’t count the ones that brought us in as I can’t tell them apart yet, 5 blades. Oh a fork, middle path okay…’ and so it went on for another few minutes until Wars was quite sure that even if he screamed, his brothers couldn’t hear him, and his dragging feet had made a trail back to the cells.

Then they entered the room and Wars gulped a little. There were 9 Yiga clan members not counting the two dragging him. That…might be a bit much in one go. There was only so much his body could take at once. Two blademasters were sitting at a table that had a multitude of maps and papers on it. The other side of the room held a table with ropes tied to all four legs and a set of manacles on the wall beside it.

‘Nayru’s tits, I’ve done it now,’ he cursed to himself before he was slammed face first onto the table. If all of them took a turn, he’d bitten off more than he could chew. “If you don’t fight it, you just might get real lube out of it,'' one of the blademasters that had dragged him hissed at him before tying his arm to the table leg. “And if you service us nice and proper like the whore the Shadow said you were, we'll even feed you lot,” the one on the left laughed as he secured his left arm.

“You,” the one on the right said, addressing the footsoldiers, “open him up for us, and make sure he doesn't get to bleeding too bad. They always bleed out so fast from the ass and we need him alive.” With that, hands were at him, yanking his trousers down and unlacing his brigandine and shirt. The brigandine was cast to the side and the shirt cut off before he was laid out on the table, trousers caught around his ankles on his boots and torso bare. One of the footsoldiers approached with a spear and tied his ankles to it, then tied the spear to the table. Shivering, he laid still, pretending to be cowed into submission while in reality it took all his focus not to show his anticipation. After all, to feed it didn’t matter if he was enjoying it, though the other person had to. Sure, it was better if it felt good for him too, but energy was energy, and this lot wasn’t gonna taste very good either way. Rapists and murderers never did, but he couldn’t be picky. Then hands were on his ass and cock. Peeking down, he could see a footsoldier pressed between his legs, fondling his cock. Seemed like they were determined to make it as humiliating as they could for him. ‘Ha idiot, you’re just helping ramp the tension up. I might even overeat at this rate!’ Then a wet finger was on his rim and a cock at his lips and he fled into his head space. He didn’t have to be mentally present to feed and he doubted they’d be gentle beyond the lube. If he got any real lube that is, because that felt like spit, not lube. If he mentally checked out, he’d even tear everything from them so even better.

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Back in the cell, the others were berating Legend even as they could see the guilt on his face.

“Why, Legend? You know what they’re doing to him now!”

Legend snarled and let the light flicker on the knife. Twilight’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Where’d ya even…” Then his ear twitched. “Hide it!” A footsoldier with a scruffy and patched bodysuit nervously came around the corner clutching a few canteens. He looked left and right before quickly throwing the canteens into the cell in reach of Sky and scampering off.

“Well…that was…odd,” Sky commented before hooking his foot into one of the straps and dragging them closer. They’d landed on a patch of stone so no need to worry about drag marks in the sand.

Opening one up, he sniffed at the water before pouring a little into his hand. “Doesn’t look off to me,” Wind said from over his shoulder. One of the canteens was passed to Twilight who also inspected it before shrugging and taking a sip. “Smells and tastes right, if a bit warm.”

Wild made a noise before signing as good as he could with his arms painful to use. “Shape was wrong. That blademaster said they didn’t have any girls left but that was no guy. I think the Gerudo managed to get a spy in here.”

Hours passed in tense silence, canteens carefully hidden behind them, before they heard footsteps approach again. By the sound of it, they were dragging something along. When they came into view, a few of them had to bite back startled oaths. Wars hung limp between them, head down and not making any motion to help move himself. He wasn’t bleeding from his torso anywhere, but his brigandine and shirt were gone and they could see every. single. rib! How long had that idiot not been eating!? There was dried cum flaked all over him and even a little on his face that had dripped down from the corners of his mouth. His throat and wrists were red and bruised, and his trousers had a slowly growing wet stain at the seat.

One of the two blademasters chortled at the looks on their faces. “Oh yes, he was a good little manwhore, took 3 of us at the same time to make him pass out. You lot are eating today!” They then threw him in and onto Time. Wild barely managed to get his arms out of the way. A soft “oof” the only sign that Wars was alive and semi-coherent as he landed. The other blademaster threw in a bag aimed at Twilight’s chest, then the door slammed shut again and they left. Time’s arms had closed around Warriors’ back and pulled him close.

“Wars? Hey Wars, say something!” Hyrule demanded, trying to reach Wars but it was hopeless as his chain was too short. Legend hissed at him and pulled him back. “Mind your wrist, idiot! Four’s headband almost slipped out!”

“Counted… 18 foot, 6 blades,” Wars mumbled, his voice rough, before he fell asleep on top of Time, one hand clutched into his tunic. That had been a very big meal and they had not gone sparingly with the lube. Beyond the pain of over stimulation, it didn't hurt. Seemed like they were determined to fool themselves into thinking he was a girl.

“Oh Warriors,” Time sighed before taking a piece of cloth from Wild that had been wetted with some water and starting to wash the filth off of him. Wars didn’t even stir during the gentle clean up. Twilight was picking through the bag and found 9 small loaves of bread and a few bunches of small bananas, as well as 3 canteens of water. Whatever they’d done to Wars had apparently been enough for the Yiga to decide to give them fresh food. The bread was still warm!

When Wars woke up, he rinsed his mouth and ate a little bit before falling asleep again on the nearest Link. Not a single one of them would refuse him the comfort of that contact. Not when he was going through this so one of them wouldn't have to. They knew enough about Cia and the war to know that this had to be extremely traumatizing for him and he still did it for them. They were well aware that he could fight harder than he did, and one of the Yiga had hissed something at him that had made him stop fighting all together.

The days blurred together like this a bit for most of them. They’d take Wars away–he seemed annoyingly determined to be the one taken after the hissed comment–he’d be gone for hours, and come back bruised and filthy with a new tally. A Yiga would throw in a few comments about what a good little cockslut he was, then leave. They never chained Wars up, just locked the door once he was in the cell. Later, a Yiga with a patched and worn suit would skittishly bring canteens of water and the small bag of food Wars had earned that day. The Yiga would take away the toilet pot and leave a new one. Wars would drink almost half a canteen, eat a few mouthfuls, never more, saying he’s nauseous, and then sleep on the shoulder of the Link he was sitting closest to at that moment.

The food was never enough, but at least it was something. No matter how much the others tried to prevent Wars from going, neither him or the Yiga would budge on Wars being the one to go. Somehow Wars was able to differentiate between them, and the numbers didn’t seem to rise as one would expect with the amount of new bodies Wars saw every day. When Time tried pressing the issue, along with Sky, Wars just gave an almost feral grin. Then a few hours later when they came again, Wars didn’t fight, just shakily got to his feet and went. The compliance was almost more worrying than the abuse he suffered.

“Time? How long have we been in here?” Wind timidly asked during one of the longer sessions. “4 days and counting Sailor.” Time tiredly answered. “What? Only the days? You’re slipping, old man,” Legend said, trying to keep the conversation alive. Time sighed. “4 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes, and 40 seconds, Vet. I was trying not to think about it.”

About an hour later, Wars was brought back by one of the scruffy Yiga. Wars was leaning on them heavily, but the Yiga never forced him to speed up past his pained hobble. The Yiga opened the unlocked cell door–it was only locked when Wars was inside– and hesitated a bit before softly saying, “Sav’aaq, Link,” and entering with Wars. He was gently lowered next to Twilight and Wild. Wild was staring at the Yiga, obviously thinking that he knew that voice. “Buliara knows you’re here. Hang in a little longer.” Then as the Gerudo spy stood up, for Wild had been right, there was a spy, Wild made a sound and made a name sign the others weren’t familiar with. She nodded and then left, but not before pressing a small canteen into Wars’ hands, urging him to drink it soon.

“Wild, you know that one?” Four softly asked. Wild nodded and made the signs for ‘good’ and ‘friend’ before holding the small canteen up to Wars’ mouth. Wars was barely awake against Twilight. It was no use; Wars just turned his head away and was asleep.

A while later, Wars woke up and gratefully took one of the canteens this time, the small one again. None of them had missed the herbal smell coming from it. He crawled off to the side a bit and rinsed out his mouth with plain water before gratefully drinking it. After some poking and cajoling from the others, he crawled back to Time’s side but after two bits of bread he pushed the rest of the loaf away. He stuck his face into Time’s neck and tried to fall asleep again. The Yiga stank and tasted of bananas, and Time still smelled like fairy and forest and, most important, that faint tang of ozone that meant Fierce Deity. A faint hiss coming from Hyrule managed to get him to pry his eye open and peer at them. The next second, Wars was up and hanging over Time’s lap to yank Hyrule’s wrist into his hand. His rear and hips twinged at him mid movement to not do that. Time oofed a bit at the unexpected weight change but let Wars use him as a makeshift pillow. The angry burn all around Hyrule’s wrist despite Four’s headband jammed in there had Wars seething in rage. “I’m okay, Wars.” Wars didn’t deem Hyrule’s comment worthy of an answer, but the fire was back in his eyes and they took it. That spark had been gone for weeks now, and to think they found it here was almost cruel.

The next time they came and yanked Wars out, he fought them a little. Just enough to make them start cursing at him. He wanted the one on the right to do a very specific thing, but he had to goad him into it. The glint of a particular key hadn’t gone unnoticed on that one's belt.

One of the Yiga coming to get him was very mad about something, and Wars was shoved and kicked and punched up the hallway as they went instead of dragged.

When he got back to the cell a few hours later, he came back with, amongst an assortment of bruises, small cuts and small burns, a purple throat. One of the Yiga had choked him, and even though he tried, he couldn’t eat the bread anymore. He downright refused to even look at the bananas. Wars seemed pissed about it too. “Wars, come on, it’s not that bad, we’ll manage.” Wars looked at them angrily before snarling out past the swelling “They seem intent on seeing how far their cocks can reach! I can barely breathe during it as is. If this swelling continues, I can’t give them head like they want anymore and I won’t get any lube!” Then he turned around and went to sleep in the far corner, completely and utterly done with being touched.

The next time one of the now 3 different shabby-looking Yiga came, bringing their rations, Wind piped up, “Wars can't eat anymore, can he have some soup or something?” Wind ignored the way Wars tensed up where he was now half-asleep on Twilight. They’d managed to coax him over into their huddle again after he'd slept for a bit. Before the Yiga could answer, a sinister chuckle came up from higher up the hallway and the shabby-looking Yiga fled, without leaving the food and water.

The biggest blademaster they’d seen came into their view and, if they weren’t seeing it with their own eyes they wouldn’t have believed it, Wars tensed up even more and actually scuttled back further against Twilight a bit. The blademaster turned so he was facing the cell directly. On his other hip, the Sheikah slate was dangling. A few of their eyes narrowed a bit at seeing it. There was a plethora of weapons, shields and (chain)mail in there, as well as potions, elixirs, and food.

“You want soup now, huh? It’s not enough that the slut over there is paying for your lives and water with every orifice he has? Now you're starting to demand things? Has he told you he had to earn lube? Well, guess what? He just lost that, and you’re not getting any food, either!” With that he snapped his fingers, and a few clansmen poofed into existence ready to drag Wars off, but something had changed. The threat of no lube was apparently enough to make him fight again. He was NOT willing to go this time. It didn’t matter that Time and Twilight and Sky tried to get between Wars and the Yiga. They managed to drag him out anyway. But one of the Yiga was down, and a second was in a chokehold. Hyrule couldn’t use his magic, but he was apparently flexible enough to lock his head between his thighs and crush his windpipe.

Then a startled sound came from the other wall. The last foot soldier had a knife to Wind's throat. They gave up fighting and the Yiga moved his head in a way that clearly said, “Move” to Wars. He went reluctantly and the blademaster yanked him by the arm, out of the cell on the slate side. The door slammed shut. When he turned his head to leave, Wars peeked and saw the foot soldiers gone. Then, with a quick move, the slate was gone from the belt and sailing towards Twilight along with a hand signal indicated that they wait. 'Just the keys now.' Wars thought to himself even as he glanced up to see if the Blademaster had noticed the theft. It didn’t appear he did notice as he was too busy yanking Wars forward, and Twilight and Wild quickly worked to hide the slate. By then, Wars and the blademaster were out of sight.

Four furrowed their brow, “Wild, check the slate. Every single potion we have now has Wars’ name on it. Especially if he’s going in without lube this time. Is my bag in there still?”

A bit of fumbling later and a keening sound made Twilight look over Wild’s shoulder. “Every single healing elixir that was in here is gone, as are the fairies. Of the medicinal ones, there’s a few vials of Sky’s potion and the sleep one, but we all know it doesn't stop nightmares. Your bag is still in there along with everything else they stripped of us by the look of it.” Cursing sounded around from this. Most of the healing potions had been in the slate to prevent them from breaking, as they'd lost too many to that fate.

Four’s eyes shifted away from green to purple and they said, “Get my bag out, I need my lock picks. The second he’s back in here, I’m picking these damn manacles off and opening that door.”

“Can’t we go now!?” Wind whined in distress.

“Unfortunately we cannot. If they hear us coming, what's to stop them from slitting his throat. You’ve heard how many are always in the room with him. I’d rather have him traumatized and hurt, but still alive, than dead,” Four grimly said.

With a bit of help from Sky and Twi, Wild managed to get Four’s bag out, along with some rations that were quickly handed out. The food store was all there, except the bananas. Four extracted the lock picks and passed the bag back to put back in so the Yiga wouldn’t see it. They hid the slate in Time’s shirt, since he was the only one with a belt still. With it clipped to his belt on his back and under his shirt, they should be able to hide it. Then they settled in to wait, again.

Chapter Text

It took hours for Wars to be returned and when he did he was in a state. He was hanging limp from the grasp of 2 Yiga, one of his hands looked mangled, and there were rope burns almost everywhere. They’d whipped him from the looks of it, and there was blood starting to stain the already cum and lube stained seat of his pants. They’d really had him do without lube, it appeared. Every bump in the hallway had his toes catch on it and his breath hitch. Tear tracks ran down his face and his eyes were puffy and red. Marks around his mouth signaled they had tied something into his mouth at one point.

With a cackle they dumped him over the threshold, and the pain that landing on his hands caused him sent him heaving. Another laugh, and the Yiga left. Wars rolled on his side, back to the hall and continued to almost puke, swallowing back desperately. He seemed to be listening, then on the fifth heave, after whatever he was listening for had happened, he gave up and started puking.

It landed all over his non-mangled hand that Wars was half-leaning on, hand fisted, trying not to fall in the vomit, his other arm was wrapped around his waist. Mangled fingers held to his stomach, that arm helping to push his torso up a little. Then a glint in the puke now covering his hand caught Legend’s eye. Twilight and Sky tried to get to him but he was just out of reach. They could maybe reach with a foot but his hand was mangled enough he wouldn’t be able to grab hold, and the other was occupied. Time’s back had frozen up on him from the cold seeping in through the stones. He wouldn’t be standing up or moving much without help, so he’d been relegated to pillow duty and he looked mad about it.

“Wars,” Legend breathed “Tell me you did not swallow the key.” The others looked at him, startled, before looking at Wars again. Wars just grinned at them exhaustedly from where he was now lying on his side next to the sick and opened his hand, showing that there was indeed a key in it. His eyes were dimming fast as the wet spots on his pants and around his back grew. With a jerk, he managed to slide the key towards the others before it looked like he was out, his eyes unfocused and staring at nothing in particular, his body shaking slightly.

The key was covered in stuff that didn’t bear thinking of, but Four dumped some water over it to clean it off a little before picking it up and starting to open up cuffs. Four started with Twilight and Sky who were A) strong enough to lift Wars, and B) within Four’s reach. They darted forward the second they were loose towards Wars. Four then unchained themselves before sliding the distance separating them from Hyrule, ignoring the others for now. Then, with another satisfying click Rulie was off as if someone had lit a fire under him, his own burned wrist ignored.

Twilight and Sky had picked Wars up and moved him away from the sick on the floor, causing him to whine in pain. Wars had twisted his torso a bit after they put him down and hid his face in Twilight’s tunic, some awareness back in his eyes in the brief glance they got, but mostly his actions just screamed that he was in pain. Then Hyrule was there and his hands lit up in that familiar glow. “They broke his pelvis, both legs, too. His fingers are a mess, too,” Hyrule mumbled to himself, then paled before the glow got brighter. Wars sagged a little against Twi in relief, and the stain in his pants stopped growing as well. Twilight grimaced at that, realizing Wars had been bleeding out from that place in his lap and he hadn’t noticed.

Then footsteps could be heard and suddenly most of them had blades in their hands. The blue glow was fading from the slate where Wind had rapidly gotten their weapons out while Wild held it active. Wars was dragged to the wall where Wild was still sitting since both Wild’s arms were still near useless. Wars gave another keen as they moved him.

Everything hurt, but full unconsciousness and consciousness were both out of reach. All he could grasp were the familiar sounds and taste of his brothers-in-arms, and trust them to do something. He could no longer summon the mental energy to focus back in. Everything hurt too much.

Hyrule moved with him, trying to feel what needed to be healed the fastest after the internal bleeding in his nethers was taken care of, something in his stomach still felt a bit off but the broken bones were more important, and Wind got some water down him.

What came into view was the three ragged looking Yiga, the one in front clutching the master key and a bundle of something, the other two laden down with canteen upon canteen.

Time cautiously lowered his Biggoron sword, Wind and Four having levered him to his feet with help from Legend, and looked at them critically. These three had always helped them with sneaking them some extra canteens or food, and Wild had recognized one of them earlier and knew their name.

“Sav’Saaba, we gotta go!” The one with the key said before unlocking the door. Then she threw the bundle she’d been carrying in and said “Splint his legs. We have 2 hours to get out before someone comes, and the blood moon is looking to rise early. So unless you want to bleed out on an altar to Ganon, we have to move fast. Buliara won’t be at the ice house yet, but we can’t wait anymore. You’ll have to make due with a trio of old biddies! Enough of them are sick in their bedrolls that we should be able to sneak you out." Then she turned and pulled a Gerudo scimitar from seemingly nowhere. The other two had clambered, with difficulty, up onto the rafters to wait.

Twilight pulled the bundle closer to him and opened up the blanket to discover a pair of leg splints, short flat finger splints, a lot of bandages and disinfectant, and the remains of Wars shirt and his thankfully still intact, if unlaced, brigandine.

When Wars heard the Yiga were sick in bed, he gave a hoarse chuckle, the receding pain in his abdomen helping him to come back to himself a little before it changed into a pained moan as Sky had started the splints with brutal efficiency.

Time had one hand clutched in his hair over his closed eye before snapping out, “Wind, get me my mask.”

“Time, no!”

“Now, Sailor!” and with that Time’s bag came out of the slate before Wind dug a mask out of it. He held it pinched between two fingers as if it was a bomb, and Wars flinched back a bit from it. With his voice almost gone due to the swelling in his throat he couldn’t talk and with most of his fingers broken he couldn’t sign, but he knew what he was in for now. The Fierce Dadity was coming, and he was mad, judging from Time’s pained grimace. On the other hand, was it really such a bad thing?

Then the mask was on and in a flare of bright light, Time was gone and the Fierce Deity was there. Deity opened his eyes, looked Wars over, and said, “I'm trusting you to get him out. Little Forest Son will meet you at Kara Kara at the latest.” With that he was gone, stalking down the hallway the way the Yiga had always dragged Warriors through.

In the silence that followed, Wind let out a whistle, then said, “You’re in for it now, Captain! Dadity’s here and he’s PISSED.” Wars just nodded while the others looked baffled. Time always said to stay away from the mask and here he had put it on willingly!? Wind then continued, “Oh well, at least the time limit is now gone,” before snickering a bit.

“Sit him up more. I healed his pelvis enough the bone won’t shatter or break more but be careful, the healing is not sticking like it should. I want to try and close his back up but it needs rinsing. Feels like there’s something in there.” They leaned him up against Four, Warriors relaxing a tiny fraction as he did each time he’d gotten to touch Four since they got imprisoned, chest to chest as Sky was now splinting his fingers. Twilight was running a hand soothingly through his hair even as Four was muttering nonsense reassurances.

The painfully rasped “some kind of salt” made some of them flinch and hurry forward with the last of the canteens in the cell. One of the Gerudo tossed another canteen in as well. Four and Wind carefully washed his back, Wars flinching and trembling the entire time, while Legend redid the wrapping on Wild’s arms. Then when Hyrule nodded that they’d gotten it all out, they moved aside so Hyrule could reach, the soft pink glow touched his skin and the tears in his skin slowly, oh so slowly, seemed to reverse in time until only red scabbed ridges remained. Wars sagged so much in Four’s hold at the diminishment of the pain that Twilight had to catch the Smithy.

“Okay, something is definitely wrong. That took way too much magic for so little improvement. Bandage his back up to be certain. Those wounds’ll probably split again at some point with how much it took to even get them to this. I can either work some more on his back or I can close Smithy’s head wound, but I can’t do both.” Wars glared at them and pushed Four into Hyrule with his closest arm, leaning his weight onto Twilight. “Ya know tha’ means you ain’ walking, righ’” After Twilight drawled out his question, Wars just shot him a look that could curdle milk. He was well aware of that, thank you, rancher, no need to rub it in. He was on the verge of completely checking out mentally, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Hey ‘Rulie? Bridal, wolf back or piggy back? I don’t know if we have enough stuff to make a proper litter,” Twilight asked Hyrule, who was now mending the gash on Four’s head. “Bridal will be hard to keep up on sand, but piggy back either on Wolfie or your back will strain his pelvis, and the less shocks his pelvis gets the better. Both run the risk of tearing his back open again,” was the distracted answer.

“Strain, but not break, his pelvis?” Sky questioned. He wasn’t the strongest, that title went to Twilight, but he could swap off with Twi if needed. Deity was somewhere murdering Yiga, but that didn’t mean none could sneak past him, so they did need to move soon. And if his back was going to open up again either way…

“It shouldn't break, but it will hurt,” Hyrule said just as he pulled his hands away from Four’s head. Legend was immediately at his side with a magic potion from his bag. Twilight nodded, and then with a flurry of black magic, Wolfie stood in his place Wolfie was big for a wolf, almost the size of a donkey from Wild’s world, but slimmer in the back than donkeys were and certainly a tad slimmer than Twilight’s hips would have been. His gait was also smoother than his Hylian form. If this worked, they’d only lose one of them to ferrying Wars out and the rest could stay on guard. Now that the manacle was off, he could shift.

They’d chained him on the wrist his wolf self already had a manacle, and he'd not been willing to risk shifting and tearing his wrist to shreds from the other manacle forming below this one. Or of other nasty thighs happening because of the double manacle.

Sky helped Wars up on Wolfie, then claimed his gear from the pile beside Wild. Wild’s arms had been strapped to his chest, and he would need a hand balancing at times as well. Legend helped Hyrule up and they stayed near Wolfie. Wind and Four took the back and, with the Gerudo ladies in front, they quickly set out for the desert-facing exit, hoping to make it to the northern ice house before midnight.

They made it a full two hallways before Wars had to lie down on Wolfie’s back, his mangled hand still hurting too much to be able to help keep him upright, and one just not enough, his legs also hurt more than he was willing to admit and he could feel his heartbeat in both his legs and his hips. A few dozen steps later though, it began to bother him that he was basically belly down with his legs spread with people behind him, even if those people were his brothers-in-arms. As he tried to sit up again, a hand came on his hip and a voice he vaguely recognised as Four’s beyond the climbing panic said, “Easy, Captain, you can lie down.” Then a far-off echoing clang off a sickle was heard, and Wars was back on that table.

He tried to throw himself to the side to get away from the hand on his hip and hit the ground harshly, panting; he painfully scuttled back until he hit a wall where he lay drawing in panicked breaths over the clamor that suddenly filled his ears. Whining, he drew his arms over his head and laid there shuddering, static filling his ears, his hand, hips, and legs on fire, the tissues in his belly feeling like they were being stabbed, and his back no better off.

After what felt like an eternity, the familiar scent and taste of sea salt hit his nose and mouth and a calming hum managed to penetrate the noise still plaguing his ears. ‘Wind,’ he realized, as he uncurled a little and dared peek a single eye out from behind his arms. Wind was sitting cross legged just before him, back towards Wars and a hand stretched back towards him and humming a sea shanty. Peeking out a bit more, he saw the others had blocked both sides of the hallway giving him time to come back to himself even though they had to hurry and get out. Shame filled him and he couldn’t bite back a sob as he moved an arm forward to touch Wind’s hand. Of all the times he could panic, did it have to be now?!

“There you are, it’s just us,” Wind said as he turned to face Wars. “Hey, shh, none of that. We’re here, we got you.” With that, Wars’ torso was pulled into Wind’s lap, tears quickly soaking the fabric as Wars couldn’t keep it in anymore. He hurt, his head was too full, and everything just needed to stop for a bit. Four spoke up from where they were keeping an eye on the hallway, “I think it was the fact that he couldn’t hold himself up. It's either a litter or piggyback at this point but I think Wars should have a say in which.”

"Wars? Can I have a look at you?” Hyrule asked from where he was standing next to Legend watching their rear. Wars gave a small nod, his lower body and back hurting enough again that he knew he had torn something anew with his stunt, even if all he wanted was to be left alone. He just had to suck it up a bit longer.

“He nodded, Rulie,” Wind said for their benefit, and Hyrule sheathed his sword and calmly came over. Crouching down beside them and his hands lit up again. He frowned a little before sighing, then saying, “I’m sorry Wars, you’ve had enough choices taken from you but piggy back is out of the question. Something tore again and healing it too often too fast in a row will also permanently damage it. I’ve healed it again, but if it tears again in the next week, I can’t. Some of your back split open again, too.”

Wars tensed but nodded. “Can you handle being on your side?” Wind softly asked.

Wild was already freeing his non-scarred arm from the sling to flick through the slate’s inventory with Four holding it up and looking with him for things to build the litter with. Hyrule frowned at Wild, but let it go for now. A pair of royal halberds dropped to the floor along with 2 bedrolls and a blanket. Four gave the slate to Legend to hold up for Wild and bent down to quickly make a litter from the material, deftly separating the halberd heads from the staves, sometimes asking if they had something else as well.

Wars gave a shaky nod again, face still hidden in Wind’s stomach. The soothing scent and taste of one of his brothers was the only thing keeping his panic and next mental breakdown at bay at this point. Sky noticed and softly said something to Wild. Sky’s sailcloth and Twilight’s pelt emerged from the slate as well, swiftly followed by Wars’s scarf.

All of the warmer clothing options had been stored in the slate when they found themselves in the lava fields. Then Time’s blanket, judging from the design, also hit the pile. Four bundled the scarf around the pelt to make a makeshift pillow. The sailcloth was folded to make a similar pillow to place in between his hands so he could feel the texture and to pillow the hand with broken fingers, and Time’s blanket was set aside to cover him. He was still shivering a bit, and they couldn't be sure whether it was cold, fear, or shock. A few clips from Four’s smithing kit clipped the blanket to the litter on one side.

“Think you’re ready to move?” Wind softly asked. Wars considered before shaking his head and then nodding. “No, but get it over with?” Wind guessed. A nod was his answer, so Sky and the now transformed-back Twilight approached and carefully lifted Wars just enough that Four could slip the litter under him. Wars couldn’t stifle the pained sound entirely. Nayru, that HURT!

One of the Gerudo ladies came out of a side room they’d paused beside and cleared her throat before holding up a small canteen and speaking, “Pain killers, the good stuff. Will make him woozy and probably knock him out though, so only if he wants.” She slid it across the ground to Four. Another few bottles were laid upon the slate so Wild could put them in with the touch of a single button. One of the bottles looked to be Hylian Lavender, but there was no syringe unfortunately because eyeballing dosage with that stuff was way too dangerous. There was still no sign of their fairy tonics or red potions.

“Wars?” Wind asked, holding out the canteen. Four paused from where they were making sure the pillow and wrist pad were under him properly. A baring of teeth and vehement shake of Wars’ head was answer enough. He wanted to be clear headed, or as clear headed as one could be while in severe pain.

“So how are we doing this?” Sky asked. Four answered before anyone else could, their eyes now purple. “Wind and I take the litter. Legend, that staff of yours that creates blocks? Can you make one behind us that will only let Time through?” Legend looked up from where he was hooking the slate back on Wild’s belt, considering the possibility, before shaking his head. “No, the staff can’t do that. I have something else though. It will move with us and I can't keep it up long, but it’s better than nothing.” With that he stepped to the rear to create a wall.

Wild tucking his arm back in the sling with a bit of difficulty. Then Legend dropped a ring on the pillow with Wars’ hands. “That’ll stay 4 feet back from that ring. I’ve got the one powering it but I anchored the wall to that one. I am getting that back from you later.” Then, softer where only Wars and Wind could hear, Legend said, “Feel free to stim with it if it helps,” and then he was gone. Wind slipped the ring onto one of War's good fingers, and Wars immediately started twisting it around his finger. It worked almost as well as sewing, Wars found.

Four nodded. “Good. If the Gerudo ladies would be willing to tell us which way at each junction, then Sky and Twilight can go in front. Hyrule should stick close to us and Legend can be on the opposite side of the litter from Hyrule in case of side paths.” The group nodded and then they were moving again. Wars gave a little grunt at the shifting of his hips as Wind and Four picked up the litter, but shook off the questioning look Hyrule gave him. It was going to hurt either way, and he was almost in a headspace where he could ignore it now that the pain had dulled to an overall throb instead of constant stabbing. He had the ring to distract himself with, just a little, and the scents of his brothers in his nose helped as well. Wild moved towards the disguised Gerudo and bumped one in the side before starting a one-handed signed conversation with them.

Hyrule had threatened him with dismemberment if he took the arm with burn scars out of the sling before he got the okay, because he knew Wild might not feel it if he tore the stab wounds open. Wild could feel it if the stab wound tore open again on the other one so a few quick questions shouldn’t hurt too much. Hyrule had let it go when he was operating the slate after all.

They made it a few more hallways before Wind spoke up in a tone that made Twilight groan. “So, Wars, what does this suck worse than?”

Wars grinned before croaking out a barely understandable, “Your grandma.”

“Dude! I will fuckin’ drop you!” Wind replied with no real heat behind it. Wars just laughed before groaning in pain. The movement had irritated his abdomen and hips.

“Wind! Honestly!" Four half-scolded from the other end of the litter, blue eyes crinkling with laughter.

Then an explosion behind them startled the group and killed the mood. Almost in unison, they picked up the pace. Seems like there were enough Yiga still alive to give Deity a workout. Wind was secretly glad Wars was so light then immediately hated himself for the thought.

Wild picked up his pace a little more, then stopped Twilight and Sky from making the next turn the ladies had indicated. He held his free hand up to his lips, indicating to the others to be quiet, and snuck into the next room. A startled laugh reached the rest of the group and curiously they moved forward. They were careful to keep Wars’ back close to the walls so he could feel safer, but still see.

When they emerged into the circular room near the exit, a few jaws dropped. There were Yiga, presumably dead, all over the floor, and Deity had one by the throat. The Yiga being held by the throat was clawing ineffectually at Deity’s wrist while Deity was calmly conversing with a tall Gerudo warrior. They looked over at Wild’s startled laugh, and the Gerudo said, “Sav’otta, Link. These the siblings we were told about?” before her eyes fell on the three disguised ones. The ladies tensed before quickly yanking off their masks. The tall Gerudo spoke, “Ah Furosa, Rima, Danda, no problems then I assume?”

The one who had found them the painkillers answered, “No, Buliara, but these scum did a number on one of them.”

“So this one told me.” Buliara then turned her attention to Wild. “Frelly and Essa are waiting outside with sand seals for you, they will help you back to the bazaar with Teake. There will be elixirs at the inn waiting for you, or on their way there. You won’t all fit, but a group tent with thick bedding is being pitched as we speak. They’ll drag a couple of cots in as well for the hurt one and the one called Time. This one said to tell him to take a cot or else. We will have more beds for you tomorrow but this is all a bit short notice.” The last said as she tilted her head at Deity who was snarling at the Yiga to stop their nonsense.

Wild signed something at her and her expression darkened. “Lady Riju had better be still in her room with Zelda when I get back. Zelda and you have been rubbing off on our Lady too much.” With that, Buliara turned back to Deity and the Yiga he still held up. They seemed to be interrogating the blademaster Deity held as easily as if the blademaster were a stuffed toy.

Wild shrugged before waving the group to follow him. They moved past them and into a hallway where Gerudo were dragging Yiga out and throwing them to the side on a big pile. Each one greeted Wild as they passed and got a name sign back. One of them handed Legend a hydromelon with the comment, “Eat, little one,” before jogging back in too quickly for Legend to protest. Legend’s face made a few interesting movements, causing Wars to fight not to laugh. Legend just sighed and slipped the hydromelon in his bag to cut up later. The embarrassment was worth it for the grin on Wars’ face right now.

Another one of the Gerudos muttered angrily to the one next to her, “Filthy Yiga, kidnapping children now,” as she focused on Four and Wind. Four stumbled, and the group paused a little beyond them so Twi and Sky could take the stretcher from Four and Wind. There were enough Gerudo around that they didn’t need the strongest members at guard anymore. During the transfer, the blanket slipped a little, and one of the Gerudo stalked off angrily at seeing what damage the blanket had been covering. When they looked at Wild, he winced a bit before signing, “[name sign] was taken by the Yiga when she was 12. They did much the same to her as they did to Wars. She’s probably going to see if there are any left alive for her to skin. Voe or not, if the Yiga did this to you, then you’re an ally of the Gerudo.”

Wars looked a bit startled at that. A Gerudo angry on behalf of a Voe she didn’t know? Just because the Yiga did what they did? Wild saw his look and signed, “My Gerudo know me, and that sometimes I'm not a boy. I have claimed you all as siblings, not brothers. So they’re treating you as ones who have not chosen yet, until you say otherwise. It won’t work for Time or Sky as they're too old, but for the rest of you it will. Wars would normally be Voe too, but,” here he faltered, his fingers coming to a stop.

“Gays are seen as Vai in their culture?” Four offered when it didn’t look like Wild would continue. Wild cocked his head in consideration before he finally answered, “Only the bottoms.” Legend looked curious and asked, “Does that mean we can go into town?” Wild shook his head and answered, “Not unless you’re bleeding badly or in Vai clothes. And if you’re bleeding, only the main plaza and only if you go straight to the medical and back out. No shopping inside, either. We’re not Gerudo-born. so the rules can only be bent so far and only that much because you’re mine. Don’t abuse the privilege. I can only go in wearing my current clothes if I'm with Zelda and I go straight to Riju and back out.”

By the looks on their faces, the group considered what Wild had explained, but shrugged it off for now and kept moving towards the 3 Gerudo who were waiting with what could only be described as a herd of sand seals. The sooner they got to Kara Kara, the sooner they could set Wars properly on the road to healing.

They reached Frelly, Essa, and Teake. ‘The old biddies’ as they’d called themselves, had split off to join another Gerudo near a campfire and tent, presumably to change. Wild greeted one of the Gerudo with the seals with a hug before holding his one hand up in greeting at the frankly ridiculously muscled one. “Sav’Saaba, Link. These are your siblings then?” At Wild’s nod, she looked them over before shaking her head. “Damn Yiga,” she sighed before she addressed the group. “Okay, which of you have sand seal surfed before?” At the nonplussed look on most of their faces, her eye twitched.

“Put them down over here,” she said pointing at a lean-to-style shelter, “And then go to Frelly and Essa. They’ll give you a quick lesson.” Wild sat down under the lean-to, and Sky and Twi worked together to get Wars situated on Wild’s lap. Wars only protested a bit at the moving. He’d only just managed to block the pain out, Din burn it! His brothers-in-arms were getting good at avoiding his painful bits after all the moving they had to do, but moving still hurt. Wild shushed him with promises he could stay completely still for a bit and waved Twi and Sky off to join the others at Frelly’s side.

From their vantage point they could see how the others fared in their lesson, and for the most part, it was amusing.

Teake sat down in front of Wars’ hips, her side towards him and Wild. “You are aware I will have to take this one back, correct?” she asked, nodding at Wars. Wars tensed up a bit where he lay half on Wild. If she noticed, she didn’t let on as she continued, “You have only the one arm from the looks of it, and even then I'm tempted to have Frelly take you as you can at least stand. From this one’s splinted legs, I'm assuming standing is out of the option and if piggy back could have been done, this stretcher wouldn’t have been constructed.” Here she made eye contact with Wars. “I won’t touch you beyond what is necessary, but my sisters are not tall enough compared to you not to topple if you waver on your legs if we try standing you up, and you will waver if we try. And your siblings are only now learning how to sand seal surf, so they are going to fall off the shield at least once on our way to the Bazaar,” she stated matter of factly. Wars deflated but nodded before hiding his face in Wild’s leg. He was done with all of this. He just wanted a cot and to be left alone so he could have a good cry. Teake sighed and rested her hand gently on his shoulder as she said, “I know, brave one, almost there. You’re holding up well.” She then got up to her feet and went to help with the teaching.

Wild snickered as she walked off and at Wars’ questioning look he worked his second arm loose and signed so Wars could see, his already free one resting on Wars shoulder in comfort. “You’re going to like this. Just try and not pop a boner okay?” before snickering at Wars’ face. “Please, I'm well aware you have a type. Tall, muscled, and able to pick you up like a doll ring a bell?” At Wars’ groan, he snickered again. “Don’t worry, even if you pop one, which I doubt seeing the state you’re in, Teake will take it as a compliment. I happen to know her type as well.” At Wars’ raised eyebrow, Wild got a shit-eating grin and signed, “Slender but well-trained, muscled, blue eyes, brave.” Then his eyes narrowed as he continued signing, “Though you resemble half-starved more than your usual well-trained. We are fixing that.” Wars could only stare at Wild wide-eyed, the info dump he just got a bit much to take in in his addled state.

Before either of them could say anything more, Wind came jogging up, almost entirely covered in sand. “Hey! Teake wants to know if there are any big shields in the slate. Legend managed to break the big one they planned to take Wars on. He hit a rock and it shattered, and Teake says the traveler shields we’ll be taking are too small to balance on with Wars.” Wild looked considering for a moment before pulling out a Hylian shield. Wind took it and ran back to Teake, who took it and then nodded at Wild in thanks before taking it in a few turns and loops to see how it felt, then she snatched up Sky as she passed him and did the same track again. Sky, being of a similar height and build to Wars in contrast to Twi who was built much sturdier, made a good test dummy. Slowing to a stop, she put a now beet red Sky down before steering the seal over to Wars and Wild.

“Go join your siblings, Link. Frelly will take you. We’ll be right behind all of you.” Wild looked down at Wars who nodded, a bit red still from Wild’s teasing, and then carefully worked himself from under Wars and stood up.

When he was gone, Teake turned to Wars. “Okay, brave one, let's get you up and to the bazaar. Don’t bother trying to hide pain, either. I’ve broken both legs at once, too. No shame in telling your siblings-in-arms when it hurts too bad. A warrior who doesn’t know their limit will only shatter and splinter instead of growing stronger.” With that said, she carefully lifted him up under his armpits until he was sitting up, then his legs were carefully pushed under him and she said, “Push up if you can, but only if it doesn’t hurt. I can take all of your weight if need be.” She pushed off and stood in a single graceful motion. Wars was indeed not able to help and had to struggle to even stay conscious as the sudden return to standing left him with black spots in his vision. When he managed to blink them away, his head was resting on Teake’s shoulder, his hips resting on hers in a side carry like one would hold a toddler. One of her hands was across his shoulders and the other placed carefully under his thighs to avoid the painful bits. Almost everything still pulsed in time with his heartbeat, though.

“Back with me?” She asked as she noticed him blinking. He carefully nodded, not willing to set the vertigo off again and she moved his one hand to a strap across her chest. “Try and hook your hand behind this strap. It’ll give you something to hold on to. Don’t worry about touching. As long as you’re not groping on purpose, you’re good." At Wars’ affronted look she laughed loudly, drawing a bit of attention and making Wars flush a bit. “Oh, I like you!” After that comment, Wars’ face resembled a tomato. He was not up for anything, but the energy coming from her was nice and warm, almost like his brothers, and he couldn’t help but bask in it a bit after the nastiness of the Yiga. It tasted of safety and strength to him, as much as energy had a taste anyway.

He dropped his head back down on her shoulder and tried to ignore the ache in his hand, hips, and legs. His back just felt hot, not painful, but it was probably being drowned out by the other pains. He was sore and hurt almost all over and just wanted a proper bed, some food, and a good cry, and maybe another nap, too.

Teake seemed to notice and her face softened. “Sleep if you can. We’ll get you to a cot, and then you won’t have to move for as long as you need. The grandmothers told us a little of what you endured to protect the others. You’ve earned the rest.” Tears started to leak out of Warriors’ eyes again at the sheer kindness and understanding from a stranger, and a man-hating stranger at that. Another soldier who’d been packing up the litter softly said, “Sav'Saaba,'' before she draped Sky’s sailcloth over Wars’ head. She worked together with Teake to bundle him up in it and Time’s blanket properly to keep the night’s chill from him as much as possible and to hide the fact he was crying.

Teake never lost her gentle yet firm grip on him. Then, with a nod, the soldier handed the bundled litter off to Essa who was waiting with Hyrule, the others slowly surfing in a wide circle in front of the hideout while waiting for Teake and Warriors to join the group. None of his brothers were willing to completely leave but wanted to offer as much privacy as they could while the Gerudo got him up and ready to move. Once they were moving, the gentle shissh sound of the shield on the sand and the slightly rocking motion, along with the smells of Sky and Time in his nose and the energy coming off Teake screaming safe, worked wonders to let Wars finally retreat into oblivion.

Chapter Text

After what seemed like no time at all, he registered the feeling of hands pulling at his pants, mentally jolting awake he fought his eyes open. ‘Not again, thought we got out!’ The hands seemed to realize he was awake and stopped.

“Hey, Cap, there you are. You were starting to worry me since I could manhandle you without you waking. Are you up for a bath?” Time asked when he saw him looking.

“Wha? Sprite?” ‘A bath? What? Where?’

“Yeah, Cap. Want a bath? Get the gunk off?” Time asked again, very patient.

“Hmmm. Too tired,” Wars mumbled before his eyes slid closed again.

“Hey hey, stay awake. How about you let me do most of it and you just stay awake for me, huh?”

“Hmmm ‘kay,” Wars said into Time’s shoulder even as he let his eyes slide closed again, only now registering he was against Time’s torso. Nayru he was tired. He dozed while Time wiped him down until a discomfort of another type reared its head. He groaned in dismay and immediately Time reassured him.

“It’s just me, relax.”

“Gotta pee,” Wars mumbled.

“Oh. Yeah, don’t relax then. Hold on, there’s a toilet right through the door here,” Time told him even as he quickly opened the door in the hallway between the inn and baths and then pulled Wars up in his arms. A bit of careful maneuvering later and Wars was sitting on the toilet with Time looking up at the ceiling as Wars hung on to his arm to stay upright.

“At least that still works,” Time joked when Wars was done.

“Hyrule fixed it,” Wars just tiredly said even as Time picked him back up, pulled the underwear back up, and carried him back to the blanket.

“I’m sure he’ll take payment in desserts and sweets,” Time drily stated. “Now you can doze, but I need you to wake up a bit again later so you can do your privates yourself, okay?”

“Hmm,” Wars hummed in agreement even as he was lowered down.

He was halfway back to sleep before Time finished doing so.

After what felt like only seconds, Time was nagging him again.

“C’mon, wake up,” Time gently but firmly told him.

“No’ ‘sleep,” Wars murmured before opening one eye. “Whadaya wan–”

Time smirked, “For you to hold yourself up, if you can manage, so I can unwrap your chest and we can get the last of the filth off of there before you wash your privates.”

Wars groaned, but with a little rearranging of his legs he managed to sit up enough that Time could reach if Wars hung onto his shoulder. He closed his eyes again in the vain hope of being allowed to fall asleep and stay so.

A tug on one of the wounds of his back startled a hiss out of him. Dang that hurt. Time apologized but kept going. Three unexpected tugged scabs and hisses later, a blade was on his skin. He tensed and flinched away but murmured, “‘m okay, know is jus’ you,” before Time could ask.

He started to feel even hotter than he’d already been and nauseous, and his head and chest were starting to hurt too. Well, his chest hurt worse than it already had anyway. It was a different type of ache.

“You still okay?” Time asked

“Need down, feel sick,”

He was helped down to the floor in a controlled slide where he had to swallow back bile frantically before he willed his muscles to go lax. Time sighed and said to himself, “Guess I do have to wash you fully.”

Wars just let himself drift off again, he was so incredibly tired, and Time was here. He could rest. Within seconds he was out. Sometime later, something was tapping the bone under his eye in a quite annoying fashion. He grumbled and turned away, hitting something soft almost immediately, but not caring what it was. It kept the poking away.

“C’mon now, nun o’ tha’!” Twilight’s voice drawled. ‘ Ugh, what does he want.’ Wars cracked one eye open and stared at him. He hoped his glare properly reflected his annoyance. A grin and smile were his answer.

“There you are, think you can drink this for us? Then we can get a shirt on you after and you can go into the warm, soft bed Sky is making for you.”

Wars just lifted his good hand and took the potion from Twi, or at least he tried. Twi wasn’t letting go of it entirely causing Wars to frown. ‘Leggo, I can do it.’ When Twi didn’t yield, he pulled it closer. Twi helped only just enough that he wouldn’t drop it after all. In quick order, it was downed and Wars couldn’t help but grimace a little at yet another sensation annoying his skin.

Twilight and Time worked together to bandage him up again, though he didn’t stay awake long enough for them to finish.

The next thing Wars registered as he was floating in the almost uncomfortable hot darkness of sleep was sound, the soft sound of a harp and a slightly closer conversation.

“Hey Time?” “Hmm?” “When is Wars going to wake up?”

'Wake up? But I am awake. Aren’t I?’ Before he could think too much of it, the heat rose up again and pulled him under again, just faintly hearing, “I think he just was, Wind,” as consciousness slipped away again.

The next time he became aware, it was to the sound of a sharpening stone. He felt his breathing hitch, so he tried to wake up further. There was something about that sound… then a voice came. “Don’t you think you sharpened that enough, Smithy?” He relaxed. He knew that voice. It meant safety and that there was someone competent on watch. “No, this isn’t the same one. Wild has like 4 of these and all of them are dull. Now that we have some down time, I’m going over everyone’s stuff with a fine-tooth comb.” Then a weight made the soft thing he was lying on dip a little and a hand settled on his brow. A considering hum and then something soft and pink? poked at him a little. He couldn’t help but mentally sit up and notice before carefully poking it back. What is it? It feels like he should know it but... The something shivered at the contact and a surprised “Oh!” came from whoever was sitting beside him. “Hyrule!? What's wrong!?” An elated giggle came as he sank down again. “He was aware!” A new voice said, “Really!?” as the sound of a hastily put down blade reached him, and then he knew no more.

This time waking up, he could feel more than hear. A heavy warm blanket over him, something firm yet soft at his back, a slight throb in his back. Something hard splinted to both legs, something soft pillowing his knee and ankle. He felt more tethered this time, less floaty, and more of the things he could register made sense.

‘Oh, I'm half on my side and half on my stomach, aren’t I?’ Next was taste. ‘Ugh, Hylian Lavender,’ then he moved his tongue a little and… ‘Is that creamy heart soup? Why would they…’ Then the memories flooded back in. Getting captured, feeling the high amount of energy and how pent up the Yiga were, manipulating them so they’d take him in hopes of getting that energy, their attentions, nicking the slate back, getting the key for the manacles, being carried out by his brothers, Teake taking him on the shield and surfing him back, being woken for a bath… and wasn’t there a healer at one point? His memories grew vague with fever haze after leaning against Time in some sort of bathhouse. He must’ve tensed, because a murmured protest came from near his chin. Then he felt it against his one wrist, the fabric of the sleeping shirt Wind preferred. Opening his eyes, he saw tent fabric and poles. For a second he panicked, thinking he’d dreamt it all in a Hylian Lavender-induced dream and he was back in a tent on some Hylia-forsaken battlefield in the med tent until he saw Four’s sword hanging next to the flap from its strap, and then next to it Time’s Biggoron, Fi, Legend’s sword, and on it went as he traced the wooden beam with his eyes. Almost all of their swords were freshly sharpened and polished and now drying. Armor mannequins stood in between them, everything polished and gleaming and clean and whole.

He stared at his own armor and shield on an armor stand at the very end next to the row of swords, his own sword absent. Had his mail ever been that clean and whole? Not for a while, at least. He'd run out of rings to repair the breast a while back, so his sleeves had been uneven where he’d cannibalized a part of one of them but the sleeves looked the same length again. Then the tent flap opened and a clattering drew his attention. Hyrule had dropped a bowl where he stood in the opening. “Hyrule?” came a voice from outside. “What’s wr..” And then Legend was there, too. “Oh, you check him over. I’ll stall a little?” He asked Hyrule before ducking back out. Wars started to push up on his arm, but then Hyrule was there pushing him back down. “No, no, don't get up yet! You had a pretty bad fever and something is wrong with your innate magic. Your bones aren't all the way healed, either. Let me just…” and with that his hands lit up and Wars could feel the poke he vaguely remembered. Curiously he poked back and Hyrule smiled. “You did that on purpose, huh? And here you’ve been telling us you don’t have magic you can use.'' Wars opened his mouth to ask, but all that came out was a croak. Looking chagrined, he just pulled a hand out from under his blanket and clumsily signed, “Not magic.” Here he trailed off, not knowing if he was willing to share what it actually was despite what they’d all endured. What Hyrule was referring to as magic was the energy keeping him alive. The energy obtained from having sex was volatile if he took it from rapists and didn’t “clean,” for lack of a better word, it properly. He’d tried one of the green potions before when he was hungry and desperate, but all it did was make him throw up. It couldn't be magic if green potions did that, could it?

Hyrule answered him anyway. “It feels like a form of magic anyway, though not one that can be shaped into a spell or anything that I'm familiar with. It feels like it’s helping you stay alive, so when it started attacking itself and you and depleting, we were worried.” Then his eyes turned shrewd. “But you know what it is, don’t you, and why it did that? And why you’re gaining weight back faster than you should be when you were as thin as you were, even if we’ve been pouring food down your throat while you were out.” Wars could only nod while looking at Hyrule apprehensive. His eyes softened. “Quest thing?” Wars could only move his hand in a flapping movement that seemed to say, “Sort of.” Then Wars asked “How long?” Hyrule just sighed and said, “Too long. You were really starting to freak us out, you know. If your fever took any longer to break, we would have had to risk moving you to try to get you to Zora's Domain. And you’re still not off the hook from that not eating you’ve been doing too! We can still see every rib, you jerk!”

Wars’ eyes widened and he tried sitting up again, but then he felt his pelvis and back screaming at him to not do that. Seemed like it really wasn’t fully healed, despite having been out for what must have been multiple days, if not weeks. With a pained yelp he sank down again, waking Wind in the process and making the tent flap yank open and the rest of his brothers pour in. Not that Wars saw any of that as he was bent almost double clutching his hips, eyes closed and panting from the sudden pain.

Then a smug voice. “And that is why I told you not to get up,” Hyrule said before soothing pink light flared to life. All Wars could do was groan and flip him off. The worst of the stabbing faded and he could feel the bones knitting back together a little more. He could also feel why he was still bed bound. The energy he’d stolen from the Yiga was floating around his small remaining bit, not integrated as it should have while he was out, and it was pushing Hyrule’s magic away. With a mental snarl, he yanked it back and forcefully tore it apart. Seems like by mentally retreating while having sex, he’d taken more than just the usable energy, and then he’d neglected to clean it, so it was disgusting. Forcefully throwing the bits out that weren’t the type of energy he could use, he gathered what little was left and set it to working with Hyrule instead of against him.

A startled “woah?!” from amidst the group made him open one eye up again and see that between Hyrule and himself, they were producing quite the light show. Hyrule’s magic was fairy pink, and where Wars’ hand still clutched his hip, there was a pale blue. Small flecks of something in the colors purple and black as well as the same red as malice were dropping away from Wars’ frame and fading out of view. The pink was cradling the blue and showing it what to do. To the others it must look like he and Hyrule were banishing some sort of infection. Worryingly, the magic seemed to want to head for his chest and abdomen too. More specifically, the womb his brothers don’t know he has.

“Why did it look like malice?! How did it change color?! What in Din’s name?!” ‘Ah, Four. Should have known he’d jump straight to the hard questions,’ Wars thought to himself in amusement before poking a little tendril at Hyrule. Hyrule looked up, and Wars shook his head. Hyrule frowned at him, Wars glared back and forcefully pushed the pink away. Then he croaked out, painful and dry, “Enough.” Hyrule looked like he was going to argue, but when Legend leaned around and agreed with Wars, he sighed and sat back.

“I might have an idea, but I won’t say until I've discussed it with Warriors” Time stated matter of factly, and when they looked over, both his eyes were open–Deity looking at them from the right one, Time from the left.

Wars looked at Time and sighed, “Can it wait?” His voice still sounded very painful, and Wild crouched next to him with a cup and a straw. He gratefully drank while Time thought about his answer. “No, it really shouldn’t, but for now, go back to sleep. Hopefully now that that stuff is out, whatever it was, the healing potions will actually do something like they’re supposed to. This conversation will keep a bit more.” Deity said with a small grin, then Deity’s eye closed, and Time blinked a couple of times before pinching the bridge of his nose and muttering, “I hate it when he does that!” before stalking off to a bedroll and crawling in himself.

Confused, Wars looked at the others. Twilight shrugged and said, “Time said it's a side effect from the mask. Deity got freaked out so he’s pushing to stay aware. It’ll be another few days before Deity can stop popping in for chats like that. Deity can’t do anything but see and talk, but it gives Time a major headache so let’s just all shush and either go to bed too or go outside again.” All of them trailed back outside save for Sky and Time, Wild signing something about stew.

Wars, glad for the reprieve, lowered himself down, already tired again and gratefully looked at Sky who fixed the blanket over his shoulders properly. Then Sky quickly gave him a hug as best as could be done and whispered, “Don’t do that again, okay? You scared the holy trinity out of us.” Sky then claimed a different cot. Wars only just now noticed how big the one he was in was.

Wars just pulled Wind closer before drifting off again. He would enjoy all the cuddles and hugs he could before he was supposed to go back to the stoic army captain who doesn’t need touch. There were some hard conversations coming apparently, but that was future Wars’ problem. For now, he could sleep and hug his brother. Wind would never be anything but his brother, even if some of the others were mighty cute.

The next morning while everyone was either getting up or already awake and entertaining themselves in the big tent, Wars was feeling a bit melancholy despite the warm weight that was Wind in his arms. Wild had woken up early as usual and the first thing he did before even starting on breakfast had been to redose Wars with Hylian Lavender. He’d even woken Wars up to do so. The Gerudo had found a syringe for it sometime while Wars was out and, with a bit of help from the Gerudo healer Muava that had come over had calculated that he’d need 1.5 units to be pain free enough that he could sleep but not so pain free that he’d start doing stupid things. Wild or Time was to give him one in the morning and then another in the evening, which had been done religiously while Warriors was out cold with his fever. But now, that left Wars awake, if slightly floaty and bored. That led to thinking.

Fierce Dadity had retreated back into the mask before Wars was awake to appreciate the customary forced hug, if he’d even been given one while he was out. A voice startled him out of his morose thoughts.

"You're pouting at something," Wind chirped, slightly too chipper for the early time, from where he lay against Wars’ chest. "Wind, I do not pout, that's your job," Warriors tiredly responded. "Well, you are right now, so out with it." “...You'll laugh at me." "I won't, pirate's promise!"

Wars sighed before confessing in a soft, barely heard voice, "I want a hug from dad..." before he trailed off and tried to hide his face in his pillow. Hylian Lavender always made him cuddly and crave contact worse than normal, and Dadity’s hugs were the absolute best even if he pretended to hate them when he wasn’t hurt. It also made him feel sad and melancholy, bordering on depression, which is why he usually avoided it but the others wouldn’t be swayed on him taking it. It was a group rule: if you break something and there’s Hylian Lavender, then you’re getting it while the potions work their magic. He could argue about it more, but then they’d have no way to force certain others to take it.

Alarmed, Wind sat up. Warriors was confessing to actually wanting a hug!? They always had to pull him into the cuddle piles by force! It had been disconcerting to have him fuss and complain in his fevered state this past while when they tried to leave him alone! Warriors just curled up a bit more, or as much as his still broken hips would let him, his face burning with humiliation. A single tear dripped out; he knew Wind would react like this. He knew he wasn’t allowed to ask. Nodding to himself, Wind got up and darted across the tent to where Time was playing cards with Twilight, Sky, and Four. Immediately, Wars felt cold and alone despite all of the others being in the tent too. Wild was discussing something with Legend while Hyrule was still asleep. A soft conversation later and Time was up and walking to his bag, before he went outside. Murmuring could be heard as he conversed with a Gerudo. Meanwhile, Twilight changed into Wolfie and padded up to Wars before carefully climbing up into the cot with Wars, then he wriggled in between his arms where Wind had lain a few minutes ago and plonked his head on Wars’ neck.

Wars had stiffened up when Wolfie crawled into the cot with him, but at a whine from the massive wolf relaxed and pulled himself closer to Wolfie’s warm bulk, his arms tightening around Wolfie. He wanted the hug and damn the teasing he’d get later, but as Dadity wasn’t here Wolfie had to do. He didn’t know how long he laid there pressed against Wolfie with his neck protected by the wolf’s head on it, the weight reassuring instead of scary, before Fierce Deity entered the tent drawing attention from the few awake who hadn’t known what Wars had confessed to Wind. Deity took one look around the tent before striding up to the cot and lifting Wolfie, who gave a startled yelp before growling a bit as he was dumped on the floor. An irritated flick of a tail later and he was stalking off to go beg for scratches from Wild.

Deity, meanwhile, just stood next to the cot staring at Wars, not even deigning to give Wolfie a glance after he’d dropped him to the well-padded floor. Wars tried to make eye contact, but the staring was unnerving him a bit, so he dropped his eyes from Dadity’s face and mumbled, “I’m being stupid, I know.”

Then with a sigh, Deity pulled Wars up and the next Wars knew, Deity was sitting on his cot with him draped half in his lap being hugged. Deity’s energy wrapped around him much like his arms did, engulfing him in a cocoon of warmth and safety. Wars thought about protesting, but then decided it wasn’t worth it and leaned into the hug. This was after all what he wanted, and if any of the others started teasing him about later, well, he’ll deal with it then. He wants this hug so bad it hurts, and now that he’s got it, he’s going to savor every goddess blessed second of it!

“You’re being good, I see my lessons finally sunk in a little,” Deity rumbled into his ear.

He could hear laughter in Legend’s voice as he joined Sky and Four at the abandoned card game and said something, but he really couldn’t care at the moment. Wars wound his arms around Fierce’s waist and relaxed even further, his head dropping to rest on his Dadity’s shoulder.

They stayed like that for what felt like an blissful eternity before Wild cleared his throat from behind them and held a bowl out to Deity for Wars. A second one was balanced carefully on the cot for Time or Deity to eat. Deity nodded in thanks as he took the bowl and cajoled Wars away from his shoulder so he could eat. Wars grumbled in dissatisfaction but ate, all too aware of the others watching him like a hawk to make sure he actually did this time. He fully expected Dadity to put him back down but all he did was move a little so Wars had room to eat and quickly ate Time’s portion. All too soon, their food was gone and after letting Four collect their bowls, Wars was pulled back against the god’s chest.

“It is never foolish to ask for comfort, Link, and as long as you are with this group, it will always be given. You’ve had one brother or another pressed up against you the whole time you were out because they were worried. Now sleep, I'll share some of my energy while you do so your stockpile grows a little. The only foolish thing you’ve done was think you could feed off of Yiga. You might as well have fed on a Bokoblin,” Deity said in his ear softly enough that the others wouldn’t hear. Wars startled at hearing that and teared up a little again. He’d had an inkling that it hadn’t worked as he’d planned as soon as he and Hyrule had fixed it, but that just meant he’d let himself be raped over and over and over for basically nothing, and he just wasn’t ready to cope with that. His energy store was only a little higher than it had been when they were caught. Most of what he’d taken from the Yiga had been lost as the two energies fought while he was passed out and delirious with fever. His brothers having cuddled him explained why it wasn’t even lower. They’d probably been helping to lower how much energy he used without knowing it. Despite him being a sex demon–at least that's what he figured out from the scarce books on the subject–he actually didn’t enjoy having sex as much as he should according to the books, and so far Fierce Deity was the only one alive he could receive energy from just by hugging, but he wasn’t willing to ask Time to give control over that often. Already the line between the two was blurring and sooner or later, Time would get overwhelmed by Deity’s sheer presence no matter how hard they worked to prevent that. A brothel it was as soon as his hips healed enough, even if he didn’t want to. He’d worried his brothers-in-arms enough.

“Sshh, you’re thinking too hard. Just go to sleep,” Fierce murmured before another layer of energy sunk into Wars’ skin, warming him up from the inside. Wars just whimpered at the comforting warmth settling in him, almost as if he’d had another one of Wild’s warm meals on a snowy cold day, and hid his face in the deity's neck. It settled weirdly low in his abdomen instead of in his chest like usual but he was just glad for it and ignored that for now. It took a while but eventually he fell asleep, still cradled in the god’s arms. When he woke up a few hours later, he was sprawled half on top of Time who was snoring softly, the deity mask fallen to the side of Time’s face. He had a new problem, though. His bladder was insistent on being emptied. Carefully he shifted his legs and hip off of Time and tested how much moving them hurt. Finding it bearable, he sat up and looked around the tent. “Sky, I need some help.” he softly called, not willing to wake Time up.

Sky looked up from where he was carving something and then hurried over after Wars carefully–oh so carefully–swung his legs off the cot. “Wars, no, stay down.” Sky said as he reached him. “No, can do. I am not pissing myself. Now play living crutch for me, will you?” Wars stated with a half grin. Sky just gave him a rueful grin before he hurried over to the tent flap. “Twi! We need some lifting done!” He called before moving back to Wars’ side and gently helping him up. When Twi poked his head in through the flap, Sky just said, “Outhouse,” and Twi’s face lit up with understanding.

It took the three of them a bit and some careful maneuvering, but they got Wars to the outhouse and back without too much fuss. It tired Wars out again though, and he grumbled even as they lowered him back down on the cot. “I am getting thoroughly sick of being so damn tired.” Twilight just grinned at him before drawling, “Yeah, well, tha’s whatcha git fer bein’ all noble and shit. Prepare fer some serious pamperin’ though, an’ Wild went out again to try an’ fin’ some things ‘e was missin’ for tha’earty elixir of his. Should work better than the ones the Gerudo have been giving us for you. They ain’t bad but Hyrule says they ain’t helpin’ that great either. Wild, an’ tha res’ o’ us, ran plenty s’pply runs while you were snoozin’, but one thang for that ‘lixir is proving ‘lusive. Wild was grumblin’ that not even Beedle ‘ad it.”

It took Wars longer than he cared to admit to get what Twi was trying to tell him, the rancher’s drawl so heavy in his worry he almost couldn’t understand Twilight at all. Then he looked at Sky and asked, “Is it me or was that nigh on incomprehensible?” Sky just shook his head ruefully. “No, we’ve all had a bit of trouble understanding Twilight here. Apparently it’ll go back to normal soon enough.” Twi just looked at them crossly. “Ah am standing right here, y’know.” Wars just deadpan stared at him “Twi. I love you, but seriously try and lose the country drawl a bit? My head’s muzzy enough from that goddess damned Hylian Lavender you guys insist I take even when I don’t want it without you drawling like that.”

Sky and Twi shared a look before Sky carefully asked, “We just don’t want you in pain while we wait for the potions to knit your bones back together. It’s still going way too slow. Which is why Wild is out trying to get more ingredients for his elixirs and tonics. Is there a reason you don’t like it? Maybe we can try something else.” Wars just sighed before easing himself down so he was lying on his side again. “Just don’t like how it makes me feel. Kinda similar to why we make sure Time doesn’t get alcohol on accident when we’re at a tavern." Then he closed his eyes and was asleep again. Time’s warmth at his back should be freaking him out, but he was just too dulled to care. He really hated Hylian Lavender. He never saw the alarmed look Sky and Twilight shared, having been front row spectators to the one and only time Time got drunk.

“No more Hylian Lavender,” Sky stated. Twilight could only nod. Then, with a blur of Twili magic, Wolfie was there and taking up guard at the cot. Sky ducked outside and approached the others where they were lounging around the water's edge, and Hyrule and Wind were in the water having a water fight. Legend spotted him first and must have read something in his face because he sat up and said, “What’s wrong now?” Immediately, Sky was the center of attention. “No more of that Hylian Lavender oil for Wars,” Sky simply said. Hyrule started getting out of the water, “He’s having a reaction, isn’t he? I knew I didn’t like his breathing last night!” Sky’s soft, almost haunted, “No,” stopped him in his tracks. Four’s confused, “Then what?” broke the silence.

Sky just sighed before answering, “Remember how Time got that time the waitress accidentally switched his non-alcoholic milk with my alcoholic one?” A collective wince went through the group. Time hadn’t gotten aggressive or anything, but he’d been unbearably weepy and at one time had looked at a small dagger a bit too contemplatively for them to be entirely comfortable with it. Time was a depressed drunk, and had stayed depressed for almost a full week after that incident. If Wars got the same on Hylian Lavender after what he’d just endured…

Wind snorted, the sound breaking the others stunned silence. “Nah, don’t worry, Wars doesn’t get suicidal. I’ve seen him on Hylian Lavender before. He gets really down but when Mask and I pressed him, he confessed that it was too much effort to actually harm himself, and it would go away once the oil was out of his system. We just got to cuddle the stuffing out of him and maybe have a little prank war. He hates the stuff because of how he worries us when he’s on it. He’s got survivor guilt from the war, but no suicidal thoughts or ideas unless he’s put on Hylian Lavender. I can’t believe I forgot about that, but all of us are FUBAR from our adventures.”

Legend just blinked at him before starting off on a rant about idiotic men who thought they needed to deny themselves pain meds just so they wouldn’t worry anyone while he stomped over to his bag and pulled out his case of rings. The others just watched him go before Hyrule softly said, “So, prank war, huh? I’m assuming Twilight and Time are safe as they’re not here.” Wind just grinned, “Are you kidding me!? Time is sooooo not safe! I still owe him one for blaming the chuchu jelly in Four’s sleeping bag on me!” "That was TIME!?” Four exclaimed, startled.

“Oh yeah, so I take it you’re in Four?” Wind asked. Four, eyes an odd mix between blue, red, and green, just nodded furiously before dragging Wind off to plan. Hyrule just called after them, “No messing with the food again!” Wild had made that rule after the last time the salt and sugar got swapped during a prank war and he got sick from it. Four just held up a hand in recognition before he and Wind started talking to one of the Gerudo running a stall with what looked to be dyes. Sky and Hyrule just looked at each other and then the still angrily muttering veteran before they left too. Sky went to keep an eye on Four and Wind and Hyrule went inside the tent to see if he could sneak in a bit more healing on Wars. The sooner he healed, the sooner he was without pain and they wouldn’t have to see him wince in pain which he was going to be doing if they kept him off the Hylian Lavender.

Wars had them, and they weren’t going to let him out of their sights anytime soon. The Yiga were gone and the Gerudo had security well in hand so they could take a bit to relax, restock and heal. Hylia willing the next world would be hospitable, or even better, the ranch!