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Hyrule raised his fist to knock on the ornate door before him but froze just before he made contact with it as thoughts of doubt began to flood his mind. He shouldn’t be here, not this late at night, but he hadn’t been able to sleep and he needed a distraction from the racing thoughts that threatened to choke him and drag him down. Warriors’s words from a few short hours ago seemed to be the only thing he could focus on in the midst of his panic, and in his desperation to find comfort he’d ended up outside the captain’s room.
They’d gotten to Warriors’s era just before dusk, and the man had been so happy to be home that he’d been in an unusually lively mood the entire evening despite how exhausted and beaten down he was. All of them had been tired; they’d been unable to find a safe place to sleep the night before and had been faced with continuous monster attacks until the portal had dropped them in the captain’s Castletown. The relief that came with the realization of safety had slammed into them so hard they’d been forced to take a moment to sit in the city square, and poor Wind had seemingly reached the end of his energy stores, so the rancher had ended up carrying him on his back all the way up to the castle after their quick break had ended.
The little sailor hadn’t been the only one struggling to stay awake. Sky and Legend had headed straight to bed the second the queen had granted them rooms to stay in, skipping dinner with the group in favor of getting some much needed rest. Most shocking to Hyrule had been the fact that even Time had retired early, eating a smaller amount than he usually would before he had excused himself with a polite bow to the queen. Neither she nor Warriors had so much as bat an eye while the old man had walked out rather stiffly, and the two of them had remained oblivious to the looks shot across the table between the remaining heroes.
Hyrule had just been glad he wasn’t the only one who’d found it strange. Besides the fact that Time was never anything but the last to leave the presence of whatever royalty they found themselves in the company of, as the unofficial leader of them all, it was unheard of for Warriors to not fuss over him at the smallest of things. And that was weird enough in its own way, the way those two acted around each other as if there was some secret they were keeping from everyone else, but after traveling with them for so long, seeing no reaction from the captain after Time had announced he’d be leaving for the night had been even stranger.
He’d been so distracted by that for the rest of the dinner that he hadn’t even realized the other heroes had figured out their sleeping arrangements, tuning in just in time to realize that he was the odd one out and would have to pick a pair to stay with in one of the three rooms the queen had provided for them. Before he’d been able to open his mouth, or even have a moment to process the fact that Twilight had asked him who he’d like to room with, the captain had placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and requested his assistance in carrying up food for their friends who had skipped dinner.
It had ended up working rather well. Hyrule would’ve chosen to stay with Legend and Sky anyway, and the walk from the kitchens through the castle with Warriors had been quite nice. He used to be a little wary of the captain in the earlier days of their journey together, he just hadn’t been used to being around so many people all the time and the older man had a larger than life personality that Hyrule used to find overwhelming, but after getting to know the quieter side of Warriors he found he rather enjoyed his company. He’d been very shocked to discover how soft spoken the captain could be the first time he’d found himself alone with him, and he’d then been forced to realize how awfully he’d misjudged the man.
Warriors was full of surprises, he wasn’t at all the pretty idiot he played himself to be, and Hyrule had really liked getting to know him over the past few months. He’d learned one day that the captain knit, having found him with his back against a tree working on something with beautiful green yarn, and that had also been how he found out the man had cats. Hyrule had been a little confused about why Warriors would be knitting sweaters for cats, he hadn’t ever gotten close to one before in his life but he’d seen several in town alleys and he imagined their fur would keep them warm, but the captain had seemed to know what he was doing so he hadn’t questioned it. Warriors seemed to know a lot of things, and Hyrule had discovered that if he sat down next to the man while he was doing some mindless activity and there weren’t a lot of people around, he could ask him practically anything and end up learning a lot from him. Warriors had a particular fascination in architecture and history, and he’d grown so used to talking with Hyrule about it that in the past weeks, Hyrule had noticed that he no longer had to ask his brother to tell him things, he just would.
Because of this new development in their friendship, the captain had done most of the talking as they’d walked to the room Sky and Legend had gone to rest in. He’d told him little things about the castle and the history of it, and had gone quite in depth about one specific stained glass window. He’d also spent some time mentioning things in the city he thought Hyrule might like to explore, and Hyrule had nearly fallen asleep on his feet just listening to Warriors’s comforting voice as he freely rambled on about the things he was passionate about.
Hyrule’s memories when they’d gotten to the room after that were a little fuzzy because of how tired he’d been. He’d barely been aware of how the captain had gently woken Sky up to take his herb blend, promising him he could go right back to sleep once he’d taken it and eaten a few bites of food. Hyrule had had less luck with the veteran, given how tired and disoriented he’d been and how generally uncooperative a grumpy Legend could be. His friend hadn’t been too pleased with him for waking him up and it’d taken some serious convincing to get him to sit up and have a single slice of bread, plus some help from Warriors, but eventually both heroes had been fed and fallen back asleep.
He barely remembered offering to help Warriors take the plates back to the kitchen, or the way the man had waved him off before stacking both in one hand and ruffling Hyrule’s hair with the other.
“I got it from here,” Warriors had smiled, one corner of his mouth rising higher than the other.
Hyrule had no memory of his own response, but the last thing his brother had told him had stuck in his mind for some reason, and was what had kept repeating in his head over and over again when his nerves had gotten the better of him and he’d started spiraling.
“If anything happens, I’m not too far away. Don’t hesitate to come bother me if you need something, okay?”
This definitely couldn’t be what the captain had meant when he’d said ‘anything’, but Hyrule’s chest was starting to hurt because he couldn’t take in a steady breath and he hadn’t been able to bring himself to wake Sky or Legend to help him. Usually he’d try to deal with it on his own, that’s what he’d done for the first eighteen years of his life when he hadn’t been traveling with a group of friends, but he selfishly wanted comfort and Warriors had offered his company…
‘He’s tired too,’ A voice in his head scoffed. ‘He doesn’t want to deal with your stupid bullshit.’
He needed to leave. He needed to just go back to the guest room and let the captain rest. Hyrule let out a whimper and when he forced the muscles in his body to relax, he’d forgotten his arm was still raised in the air, and it swung down and hit the door.
The sound shot through him like a shockwave, echoing in his ears as if an explosion had gone off and his breath caught in his throat as he froze. His mind went blank, the angry voices yelling at him that he wasn’t safe in this huge unfamiliar building silenced by the dread that engulfed his entire being. He couldn’t even hear a sound over the blood rushing in his ears, not until his panicked exhale as the door was slowly pushed open.
His guilt came rushing back into him, pushing past the dread when he caught sight of Warriors as the opening door bathed him in the warm light from the hallway. He thought he’d seen the captain without his makeup on before, it wasn’t uncommon for Warriors to wash it off after dinner, but Hyrule was only now realizing he’d never seen him without it up close.
It had never occurred to him how much makeup would be able to change his brother’s face. Sure, he knew about the four thin lines across the captain’s right cheek, and it was no shock to him that they stood more prominently against his skin in the warm glow of the hall, but he’d never thought about what else might be covered to help Warriors maintain his image of perfection. Staring at the light dusting of freckles across his cheeks, the scar on his chin, and the soft shadows beneath his eyes, Hyrule felt like he was looking at a version of the captain that he was never supposed to see.
The person who stood before him was still his brother, but there was a softness, a realness to him as he stood before Hyrule with his bare face and messy curls that he hadn’t expected to see when he’d wandered over in search of comfort. And this unexpected side of the captain had stopped him in his tracks, changing his panic to overwhelming guilt because it was this tired young man he was disturbing and not the perfect, infallible captain he’d originally sought.
It didn’t help that his brother was blinking at him slowly, frowning as he tucked his unruly curls behind an ear before squinting at Hyrule as if he couldn’t figure out what he was looking at, with none of his usual confidence or perfect posture in sight.
A voice in the back of his mind told him there was a good chance that if he ran away right now, he could abuse the captain’s exhaustion and poor eyesight and get away without bothering him, but he was frozen in place, unable to do anything but stare back.
“Rulie?” Warriors yawned, covering his mouth with a hand as his head cocked to the side in confusion. “Something wrong?”
He couldn’t tell him. Hyrule couldn’t tell him the real reason he’d been freaking out, or that he’d been mid panic attack until the dread and guilt had consumed him upon seeing this side of his brother, but he couldn’t bring himself to flee either because the captain wasn’t stupid and he’d be able to figure out something was wrong. He felt his heart pounding under the weight of Warriors’s concerned gaze, and his brain grasped for anything it could find to use to explain himself.
“You have cats,” he ended up blurting out after another moment of silence, and he bit his lip to hold back a frustrated groan, disappointed in himself for not being able to come up with anything better.
The captain’s eyes widened in shock, the flame of a nearby torch reflecting in hazel and giving it a warm, golden glow. “I do.”
“May I… May I meet them?” Hyrule asked, looking down at his hands as he fought to keep himself from nervously cracking his knuckles.
“Of course,” Warriors offered him a kind smile, rubbing his face to wake himself up a little more as he stepped aside and gestured for Hyrule to enter.
It was blessedly darker in the captain’s room than it was in the hall, so he could keep telling himself that Warriors looked no different than he usually did to ease some of his guilt until his eyes properly adjusted, though it was so dark that he could barely see a thing and stumbled almost immediately over something on the floor. His brother seemed to recognize he was struggling, and Warriors gently brushed a hand on his shoulder to guide him closer. By the time Hyrule’s knees bumped into the edge of the captain’s bed, his eyes had adjusted as much as they were going to to the dark space.
He almost let out a scream when he noticed a huge dark lump on the mattress before he realized it was only Time, and his hand flew to his chest as he sighed in relief. The old man seemed to be asleep, breathing deeply on his side with something dark pressed against the white cloth covering his back. Hyrule jumped when that something opened its eyes and blinked at him.
Warriors laughed quietly next to him as he reached out and grabbed the creature, raising it to his face to kiss its head before bringing it close enough to Hyrule that he could make out it was wearing a little knit sweater.
“This is Rosie,” the captain told him, and Hyrule’s eyes widened as he took in the creature.
He could admit that she was cat shaped, but he’d never seen one look quite like this. The alley cats he was used to were scary little things, used to fighting for their meals and not the most friendly to hylians, and every single one of them had had fur. Looking at Rosie, and her sweet blue eyes that peered up at him from Warriors’s arms, suddenly his brother’s obsession with knitting tiny sweaters made perfect sense.
“She’s bald??” It came out of his mouth before his exhausted, overworked brain could think of a nicer way to put it.
“Hairless,” his brother huffed, holding Rosie closer to himself with one arm and patting an empty space on his bed in a gesture for Hyrule to sit with the other. “Be nice to her, she’s my daughter.”
“I’m sorry, Rosie,” he whispered, unable to take his eyes off her when Warriors set her down on his bed and she slowly headed towards Hyrule while he shifted around on the mattress to get comfortable.
He froze, unsure what to do with himself when she started sniffing his leg, and he stopped breathing entirely when her little head rubbed against his knee.
“You can pet her, she won’t hurt you,” the captain smiled softly, turning to face the sound of something small approaching before bending down to pick up another cat.
“H- How?” He breathed, torn between cautiously watching Rosie blink up at him and staring at Warriors as his brother gave his second ‘daughter’ kisses on her small head as well. A considerable amount of meowing came from the second cat, which did nothing but make the captain giggle in a way Hyrule had never heard before. “I don’t… I’ve never been this close to a cat before…”
“Like this,” Warriors said softly after he placed the other cat on his bed.
He watched as his brother simply stuck his hand out, letting Rosie nuzzle it before using his thumb to rub the side of her little face.
Hyrule appreciated that the captain didn’t make him feel stupid for not knowing what to do, instead gently showing him how Rosie liked to be pet. She felt much different than he’d been expecting, despite her lack of fur she was still quite soft, and she was a very sweet little creature. He completely understood why Warriors had two, and why the captain must’ve been so excited to be home to see them.
A sudden rumbling sound frightened him, and he took his hand back, scared he did something wrong.
“You’re okay,” his brother laughed, climbing onto his bed and leaning back against his headboard. “She’s just purring.”
“I can keep petting her?” Hyrule asked as he looked down at Rosie’s little face.
Warriors hummed, hiding a yawn with the back of his hand. “She’ll walk away if she wants you to leave her alone.”
Hyrule resumed gently petting her soft head with just the tips of his fingers, and he felt some of the tension in his body relax when Rosie scooted closer to him.
“She’s very sweet…”
He could hear the smile in the captain’s voice when he answered. “She is.”
He’d gotten so lost in how much he enjoyed petting Rosie that he’d temporarily forgotten the existence of both the old man and the other cat until Time pushed himself up on a shaky arm with a panicked gasp, the motion startling both cats off the bed, filling the room with the sounds of labored breathing and skittering paws on the floor.
Hyrule had also forgotten how much of an intruder he’d felt like when the captain had first opened his door for him, but the guilt and anxiety returned to him without issue as he watched how Warriors calmed Time down without a single word, just placing a gentle hand on the old man’s back seemed to be enough to get him to take in a full deep breath.
Hyrule shouldn’t be here, he was bothering them. The realization that Warriors had probably been asleep before he’d knocked fully sank in and his heart dropped to his stomach. He was causing problems for his friends. He needed to leave.
“Cat,” the captain said simply once the old man had started trying to flip himself around to face him. His voice sounded strange to Hyrule as his thoughts started overwhelming him again, fighting to drown out everything else. “And also Rulie, but he’s not the one who pounced on you, he’s just also here.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he turned his head to face his lap, unable to look at either of them.
“Whatever for?” Warriors asked, and he could hear him shuffling closer across the mattress.
“Waking you up,” Hyrule mumbled, bringing his knees up to his chest after kicking his boots off. “Keeping you up.”
“You didn’t wake me,” the captain spoke softly, gently rubbing circles between his shoulder blades to comfort him. Hyrule really hated that it worked, he hated that Warriors making him feel better was also making him feel more justified for seeking him out in the first place. “I was up anyway.”
And he hated that his brother felt like he had to lie to him.
As if the old man could hear his thoughts, he grumbled out, “He’s telling the truth. He says he won’t go to bed till his hair is dry, you didn’t wake him.”
Hyrule’s head raised just in time to see Warriors shoot Time a withering glare.
“You should never go to sleep with wet hair,” the captain huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
The old man reached up and stuck his hand in Warriors’s messy curls before the captain or Hyrule had time to blink, and he had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop himself from giggling at the man’s enraged shriek.
“It’s not even damp anymore,” Time muttered under his breath, letting his arm drop back down onto the mattress before letting out a small grunt of pain. “If you don’t want to cuddle you can just say so, you don’t have to come up with stupid excuses.”
“You’re a fucking brat, Sprite, I hope you know,” the captain rolled his eyes, and it wasn’t until he saw the corner of Warriors’s mouth curl up that Hyrule realized they were joking around.
Time said something to get back at him, but Hyrule couldn’t hear it. His chest had started to ache as his breaths had grown shorter and more frantic, and he was so distracted by the panic that came from the idea that he couldn’t breathe and the knowledge that he was disturbing his brothers with his little breakdown that he couldn’t even remember the initial reason he’d started freaking out, let alone comprehend the voices outside his own head.
He just wanted to feel safe again, he wasn’t sure what was happening to him or why he was feeling so dizzy, but he just wanted someone to hold him and tell him he was going to be fine. He wanted it so badly that at first he thought the arms around him were just a figment of his imagination, his brain’s desperate attempt to provide him with what he needed instead of a loving brother who really had pulled him close.
“You’re okay,” a kind voice said, and he felt the vibrations of it move straight through him from where his ear was pressed against someone’s chest, bringing with it warmth and the beginnings of a sense of calmness. “I’ve got you. You’re okay, Rulie.”
His fingers curled tighter around a soft fabric he wasn’t even aware he’d grabbed, and he was mad at himself when he started crying. Why was he getting so upset when he couldn’t even remember the reason?? He was just bothering the older heroes and making a fool of himself.
“You can cry,” the voice (Warriors’s voice) told him, giving him a gentle squeeze and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “Sometimes it’s good to cry.”
“I don’t even- I don’t even remember why I’m upset,” he mumbled, burying his face in the front of the captain’s shirt. “I don’t even remember what’s wrong.”
“That’s okay,” Time said softly from somewhere to his right. “You don’t have to have a reason.”
“This is stupid,” Hyrule argued, but embarrassed as he was, he couldn’t find it in himself to push away from Warriors, instead melting further into him when one of the captain’s hands came to cradle his head. “I’m being stupid, and I’m wasting your time an’ keeping you up.”
“You never waste my time,” Warriors told him, and his voice was so earnest that Hyrule felt a fresh wave of tears roll down his face. “I told you earlier that you could come to me with anything and I meant it.”
He was too tired to argue, as much as he wanted to keep apologizing, because surely his meaningless breakdown was getting annoying. All he could do in his exhausted state was go fully limp against his brother with a little sigh. Warriors held him for a few minutes more, whispering assurances to him until his breathing had evened out before gently laying him down on the mattress. Hyrule was so tired he practically dissolved into it, not protesting at all when he ended up between the captain and Time on Warriors’s gigantic bed. He had so much space he wouldn’t have had to brush against either of them, but his sleepy, selfish mind didn’t want to feel alone, so he scooted up against his brother and rested his head on Warriors’s chest once he’d laid down. The sound of the captain’s heartbeat had helped him calm down while his brother had been holding him, and for some reason the idea of being without it threatened to bring back the crushing wave of panic.
It was a reminder that he wasn’t alone, the steady thrum a message to the evil little voice in the back of his head that he was safe because it wasn’t just him anymore. The captain would keep him safe, the old man too.
Warriors held him close, letting his cheek rest on Hyrule’s disastrous curls, and he held onto the captain tighter as his brother began to talk softly about his cats, his soft voice singing him to sleep faster than any lullaby.
He learned the other one was called Delilah, and that Time was convinced she disliked him, and had managed to stay conscious for one short little story about the captain chasing Delilah down the hall after she’d escaped the bath before he’d drifted off, oblivious to Rosie curling up near his and Warriors’s heads.